Microbial load, physico-chemical properties, and organic acid profile of a naturally fermented carabeef, Pindang damulag, as affected by fermentation time

Issue Date

4-2020

Abstract

Pindang damulag or fermented carabeef is a native traditional food from Pampanga, Philippines. It is produced by mixing thin slices of carabeef with curing ingredients, then storing the mixture in an anaerobic condition, and left through the action of naturally growing lactic acid bacteria (LAB) via fermentation for 1 week at room temperature. However, the practice of production and consumption of pindang damulag is slowly dying and there are only very limited scientific studies on pindang damulag. Therefore, the study aimed to identify the LAB present and determine its contribution to the microbial diversity, physico-chemical properties, and organic acid profile of pindang damulag during natural fermentation. During fermentation, standard serial dilution and plating show that all targeted groups of microorganisms (fungi, common bacteria, coliforms, acid producing bacteria and LAB) grew significantly until the 3rd day. After day 3, only acid producing bacteria and LAB grew significantly. There was also a significant decrease in total soluble solids (TSS) from day 0 to day 3 (30.31 – 28.17°Brix), while titratable acidity (TA) and pH were found to be statistically constant (3.5% at pH 5.97 – 3.6% at pH 5.9). Moreover, significant decrease in TSS (24.89, 22.76, and 20.53°Brix) and pH (5.60, 4.93, and 4.53) were observed, while TA increased significantly (4.5, 5.6, 6.6%) during days 5, 7, and 9. After the culture dependent phenotypic and genotypic tests using 27F and 1492R primer pairs, LAB isolates were found to be homologous to Enterococcus faecium and Weisella paramesenteroides. The former exhibited proteolytic activity on pindang damulag which broke down the protein chains with approximate MW of 20.1KDalton as observed in the acrylamide gel from SDS-PAGE. The other LAB was known to be a heterofermentative LAB, which reflected on the predominance of other organic acids such as citric acid (448.70 mg/100 g), acetic acid (1724 mg/100 g) other than the lactic acid (4440 mg/100 g) alone, using RP-HPLC. Therefore, LAB was found to have a major role in the food safety, food quality and overall profile of pindang damulag.

Source or Periodical Title

Food Research

Volume

4

Issue

2

Page

312-319

Document Type

Article

Physical Description

illustrations, graphs, tables, references

Language

English

Subject

Enterococcus, Lactic acid, Native, Traditional, Weisella

Identifier

https://doi.org/10.26656/fr.2017.4(2).275

Digital Copy

Yes

En – AGROVOC descriptors

ENTEROCOCCUS; LACTIC ACID; NATIVE; TRADITIONAL; WEISELLA

Link to Full Text

Share

COinS