Microbiology and Water Activity Relationship in the Processing and Storage of Sudanese Dry Meat (Sharmoot)

The Sudanese dry meat SHARMOOT is a major food product in East Africa. No information is available on microbial profiles or improved methods of processing the product. We have developed a pre-cooking and grinding procedure that produces the meat efficiently. The product is chemically and microbiologically stable for at least 4 months without refrigeration. While staphylococci and Enterobacteriaceae were the most common major bacterial groups isolated from dried meat samples at the beginning, micrococci and bacilli predominated during the last stages of storage. Microbiological data (total, spore, yeast and mold, and Staphylococcus aureus counts and Clostridium perfringens detection) indicated that the product made by us is microbiologically more acceptable than a comparable product made traditionally in Sudan. The potential exists for large-scale production of SHARMOOT.