effect of warm-smoking on total microbial count of meat products

The frankfurters are amongst the most famous and popular sausages in the world and beef and poultry meat are used in Iran for their preparation. The techniques of warm smoking at 42°c for two hours and then hot smoking together with steam cooking at 8°c for one hour are utilized in proportion of this product. In spite of its carcinogenic properties, smoke is used to create color, flavor and odor and to improve the preservative qualities of sausages. In this study, 14 sausage samples were taken from each of the stages of frankfurter production line including pre-smoking, post- warm smoking and post-hot smoking, their total microbial counts (aerobic mesophiles) determined and the means of the three stages compared using the ANOVA statistical test. The results indicated that the total microbial count increased significantly (P