Validation of pasteurization of finely chopped, cooked sausages with a small diameter

Mladen Rašeta; Ivana Branković Lazić; Boris Mrdović; Nikola Betić; Becskei Zsolt; Jelena Jovanović; Radivoj Petronijević

doi:10.18485/meattech.2025.66.1.4

Mladen Rašeta Institute of Meat Hygiene and Technology https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9860-6681
Ivana Branković Lazić Institute of Meat Hygiene and Technology https://orcid.org/0009-0005-5844-9278
Boris Mrdović Institute of Meat Hygiene and Technology https://orcid.org/0009-0006-9964-4317
Nikola Betić Institute of Meat Hygiene and Technology https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7375-6752
Becskei Zsolt Faculty of Veterinary Medicine University of Belgrade, Bulevar oslobođenja 18, 11 000 Belgrade, Serbia https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8724-5892
Jelena Jovanović Institute of Meat Hygiene and Technology, Kaćanskog 13, 11 000 Belgrade, Serbia https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0301-729X
Radivoj Petronijević Institute of Meat Hygiene and Technology, Kaćanskog 13, 11 000 Belgrade, Serbia https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3901-3824

DOI: https://doi.org/10.18485/meattech.2025.66.1.4

Keywords: pasteurization, validation, cooked sausages, thermal treatment, thermocouple

Abstract

Pasteurization is a physical food preservation technique that effectively destroys microorganisms and inactivates tissue enzymes by applying moderate temperatures below 100°C. The safety and shelf-life of finely ground sausages, which are packaged in polyamide casings diameter 50 mm, weighing 220 grams, and produced by a food business operator, are ensured through pasteurization which lasted a total of 47 minutes. The standard pasteurization was performed in chamber at 80°C, in a saturated steam environment. Following this, the sausages underwent a cooling phase lasting 25 minutes in the same chamber immediately after the termination of pasteurization. During the pasteurization at 80℃ and the cooling thereafter, pasteurization values (Pv) were ascertained in the thermal center of the sausages (thermocouple channels 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10, and 11), and ranged from 61.45 min (channel 10) to 81.07 min (channel 8). By achieving these Pv values, the temperature of 74°C in the thermal center of the cooked sausages was validated as adequate for ensuring the safety of the sausage product under the already-defined conditions of the cold chain storage.