ABSTRACT
Meat and meat products are important sources of proteins, vitamins, and minerals, which can therefore be considered as their functional compounds; however, they also contain fat, saturated fatty acids, cholesterol and salt that are often labelled as the ingredients having a negative impact on human health. Sugar content (natural carbohydrates and added glucose with derivates) and other nutrients like amino acids, fatty acids, minerals, vitamins, etc., are considered to be the cause of the fermentation process. The quality of fermented meats is influenced by various factors starting from the selection of raw materials and stuffing recipes to the production technology, that is to say, technological processes (conditioning, fermentation, drying, smoking and ripening) and technological parameters (temperature, relative humidity and air/smoke velocity) applied (Kovačević 2014).
