Meat is rapidly contaminated when it is ground for hamburger or sausage because the bacteria normally present on the outside of the meat (skin, nails hair) move into the chopped meat where there are many air pockets and rich supply of moisture and proliferate.
If the sausages lose moisture too rapidly during the initial stages of the drying period, the surface hardens and a crust develops. This crust inhibits further transmission of moisture which spoils the sausage.
Excessive humidity in the drying room causes the product to mould.
During the process of Sausage Drying, approximately 30 air changes/hr is required, while the temperature has to be consistently maintained at 20ºC and below 10% RH.
Temperature has to be maintained at 20º C and below 10% RH.
Meat products such as cured meats, sausages etc use water activity(aw) to increase their shelf life as lower water activity means lesser availability of water for microorganism growth. Water activity is in fact an vital determinant for stability because food stuffs that have very low water activities have little water for microorganism growth. Most meat products with lower water activity levels utilize salt to bind water as well as drying techniques to lower the total moisture content of the product which in turn lowers the water activity.
In the beginning of the drying process it is okay for the the RH to be as high as 97%. After the RH must be reduced so that the drying rate at the surface is kept as low as possible. “The RH has to be regulated according to the decrease in water-activity value of the product. Thus, the air RH should be more or less 4% lower than the value of water activity of the product.”
The entire cycle taken for drying and storing is around 30 days. During the drying time the size of the sausage diameter reduces from 40 mm to 25 mm.
During the entire cycle of drying it is essential for the rooms should be equipped with a fan, dehumidifiers and as well as humidity and temperature control instruments.
It is essential for sausage drying rooms to be equipped with a fan, and with facilities for dehumidification. Bry-Air’s recommendation is to install a Bry-Air desiccant dehumidifier as they are capable of maintaining dew point as low as -60ºC regardless of ambient conditions It has been observed that Bry-Air dehumidifiers helps to retain the nutritional value of sausages while retaining flavor.
Bry-Air Desiccant Dehumidifiers thus offer the simplest and most economical solutions to humidity control.
