ABSTRACT
Fermentation is one of the oldest preservation practices used by man and is applied to a wide variety of foods. The term fermented meat is very generic and involves a wide variety of meat products based on a mixture of minced meat and fat, with salt and/or sugar, which is stuffed into a casing, fermented and dried or smoked (1). The evolution of fermented meats has followed a traditional route, with oral transmission from generation to generation over the centuries but very empirically, with a rather poor knowledge of the process technology (2). It was just in the latest decades of the 20th century when rapid advances in the scientific
knowledge of the chemistry, biochemistry and microbiology involved in the process were reached (3). This knowledge prompted successful developments in technology and a significant progress in quality standardization.
