Cooked ham as a model system to predict shelf-life

Some preservation techniques are here investigated in order to evaluate their influence on the cooked ham microflora evolution. Cooked ham has been considered as reference system in order to study the shelf-life of food products that are "not permissive" towards microorganisms growth. To predict the shelf-life of sliced cooked ham is very difficult because of both the potential casual contamination after cooking and the hygienic conditions of the slicing and packaging areas; such factors make the system extremely aleatory. In this research, ham samples have been inoculated with specific spoilage microorganisms previously isolated by a spoiled cooked ham. In a second test, nitrogen treatments have been applied with the aim of decreasing the system aleatority caused by the casual contamination.