Microbiological Characteristics of Fermented Catfish (Clarias gariepinus) Sausage as The Result of Carrageenan Addition

Abstract

Fermented sausages are the emulsion product and their stability is strongly determined by protein interaction which acts as an emulsifier along with binder compound in order to form cross-link. Thus the products become compact and resistant to the infection of pathogenic and spoilage bacteria. The current research was aimed to investigate the microbiological character-istics of sausage as the result of carrageenan addition. This descriptive re-search was repeated three times. The result revealed that pH will gradually decrease following to the length of fermentation. At the end of the fermen-tation, the lowest pH (4.84±0.01) found 2.5 % additional carrageenan. Addi-tion of carrageenan 1.25% up to 5% could inhibit the growth of pathogenic bacteria 14th day onwards up to 28th day of fermentation, but not for lactic acid bacteria (LAB). Surprisingly, on the last day of fermentation, carragee-nan did not affecting LAB growth. The growth of LAB on the treatment of 0 to 5 % carrageenan was not significantly different with 6.5134±0.08 and 6.6466±0.14 log CFU/ml, respectively. It is clear that the addition of carra-geenan to the concentration of 5% will only inhibit pathogenic bacteria but not for LAB.