The effect of potassium lactate on the free amino acid composition, lipid oxidation, colour, microbiological, and sensory properties of ready-to-eat pastırma, a dry-cured and dried meat product.

In this study, the effects of potassium lactate (PL, Potassium-L-2-hydroxy-propionate, Potassium-L-Lactate) usage (0%, 0.5%, 1.0%, 2.0% PL of curing mixture) in addition to NaCl and sodium nitrite as curing agent on the physico-chemical, microbiological and sensory properties of ready-to-eat pastırma were investigated. The usage of PL affected pastırma properties as pH ( < 0.01), TBARS ( < 0.01), salt ( < 0.01), residual nitrite content ( < 0.01), a* value ( < 0.01), microbial properties ( < 0.01) (total aerobic mesophylic bacteria, lactic acid bacteria, /, yeast-mould count) and amino acid levels [lysine ( < 0.01), isoleucine ( < 0.01), leucine ( < 0.01), methionine ( < 0.05), phenylalanine ( < 0.01), valine ( < 0.05), threonine ( < 0.01), tryptophan ( < 0.05), aspartic acid ( < 0.05), glutamic acid ( < 0.05), asparagine ( < 0.05), serine ( < 0.01), histidine ( < 0.01), glycine ( < 0.01), alanine ( < 0.01), proline ( < 0.01), cystine ( < 0.05) and norvaline ( < 0.01)]. According to results of sensory analysis, the difference among pastırma samples including PL was not significant ( > 0.05).