Behavior of a vancomycin resistant Enterococcus faecium strain in salami type sausage -: Investigation on the survival of E-faecium in dry and fresh salami

So-called fresh and dry salami type of sausage were chosen to investigate appearance and performance of vancomycin resistant enterococci during production and ripening. The results indicate that the application of starter cultures were able to decrease the growth of a vancomycin resistant Enterococcus (E.) faecium strain during production and ripening of both raw sausage types. The colony number of the inoculated vancomycin resistant enterococcus strain increased within 3 days from originally 8x10(3) cfu/g to approximately 10(5) cfu/g, while in the presence of the starter culture the bacterial count of the respective strain remained during the entire ripening and storage time at approximately 104 cfu/g with the fresh salami type sausage and with 101 cfu/g during the dry salami production. According to the results other ripening parameters, like PH and drying (a(w)), had no influence on the growth of the selected resistant E. faecium strain.