Fresh Pork Sausage

[Jeanne166]

Anyone have any ideas in what makes some pork turn more quickly then others. We produce a wide variety of pork sausage. The products without cheese hold up longer then the products with cheese.

[Joe Hell]

I haven’t noticed anything cheese related but I have noticed brats that are heavy with onion or garlic tend to turn faster. Letting them air dry for a couple of days (rather than wrapping in plastic daily) in the display case seems to give them extra life. I’m freezing everything within 4 days normally.

[zbigjeff]

Joe Hell Maybe you have something there in your observation. Maybe it lets them dry and settle a bit before freezing them. Good observation.

[processhead]

I think with any fresh product, and not just pork sausage, you are depending on the bacteria load of every one of your ingredients as a determining factor to how long it is going to remain fresh.
Nothing that is added to the meat is going to be entirely free from some bacteria. Seasoning could be an exception and some may have been irradiated by the supplier to sterilize them.

All you really have control of is your own sanitation and manufacturing processes. After that, keeping the product as cold as possible while its on display and freezing anything else before the spoilage bacteria can multiply.

That is the key difference between cooked product and fresh. With cooked product, you are starting out with an essentially sterile product after thermal processing.

[johnsbrewhouse]

Jeanne166 Here is an article regarding cheese interactions with meat products.
https://www.cdr.wisc.edu/assets/pipeline-pdfs/pipeline_2011_vol23_02.pdf

[mrobisr]

Just throwing out a thought for what ever it is worth, oxidation maybe.