R0 S1 S2 S3 SE       No curing salts With curing salts No curing salts With curing salts No curing salts With curing salts   Time (t) Curing salts (C) t*C TAMF 4.82d 4.57e 3.49f 7.15bc 6.99c 7.73a 7.19b 0.018 *** *** *** Enterococci <1.00 1.30 c 1.30 c 4.69 a 4.21 ab 4.69 a 4.03 c 0.056 *** ** * LAB 2.56 d 3.53 c 3.56 c 7.10 b 7.15 b 7.75 a 7.31 b 0.022 *** * ** Micrococcaceae 0.81 b 2.64 b 2.77 b 6.67 a 5.43 a 5.44 a 5.41 a 0.230 *** ns ns Enterobacteriaceae 2.11 1.30 1.60 1.78 <1.00 <1.00 <1.00   ns ns ns In same row, means with different letters are significantly different. ns – not significant; * = P<0.05; ** = P<0.01; *** = P<0.001. SE - Standard error. TAMF - total aerobic mesophylic flora.

Table 7: Variability of microbial counts (log c.f.u. g-1) at different processing stages of “Chouriço de Carne” manufactured with and without curing salts.