Traditional fermented meat products from Portugal

The fermentation of meat products, especially pork meats, has been a staple of Portuguese cuisine since its genesis, with meat salting and maturing traditions going back thousands of years. There are a wide variety of Portuguese fermented meat products, and their manufacture represents an important source of income in specific regions, predominantly in the non-coastal northern and southern regions. Many of these are premier high-end food products sold at high prices in national urban centres and international markets. While many products are nationally or even internationally recognised, several lesser-known Portuguese sausages risk relegation to the footnotes of scientific knowledge and research. To make them known, a collection of several products per region was collected and is presented in this chapter. Lactic acid bacteria are the typically the predominant microbiota of these fermented products, often contributing to increased shelf life and promoting food safety by their bacteriocinogenic activity, but several pathogenic organisms have occasionally been detected, affecting their safe consumption. This chapter addresses scientific advances in the characterisation, fermentation, and preservation of these traditional fermented meat sausages from Portugal through the use of novel analytical techniques, starter cultures, or biopreservatives. Additionally, historical facts about their origin and forms of production are discussed.