Influence of lactic cultures on the quality attributes of tsire, a West African stick meat

Tsire is a popular, traditionally processed West African stick meat. Two lactic acid bacteria (LAB), Pediococcus acidi-lactici and Lactobacillus plantarum were used to inoculate pieces of fresh beef before (TA) and after (TB) grilling followed by incubation at 30 degree C for 24 h. TA and TB tsire samples had the lowest coliform count (expressed as log c.f.u./g) of 13.48 and 8.83, Staphylococcus count of 7.90 and 5.76, Pseudomonas count of 10.06 and 5.99 on day 6 of storage period respectively. There was an increase in the population of the inoculated LAB in the TA and TB samples to 10.93 and 12.41 respectively. However, the uninoculated samples (TU) had a relatively high coliform, Staphylococcus and Pseudomonas counts. Biochemical analysis of the tsire products showed the TB samples having the highest crude protein (26.43%), thiobarbituric acid (0.25 mg malonaldehyde/kg) and free fatty acid (0.45 mg KOH/g lipid) values. Polyvinyl chloride was found to be the most suitable packaging material for the products during storage, compared with aluminium foil and newsprint. Organoleptic evaluation of the tsire samples also revealed that the TB samples were rated higher in terms of texture, appearance and flavour, while the uninoculated samples had the lowest scores.