# Physicochemical Properties and Volatile Profile of Chito: A Traditional Dry-Cured Goat Meat Product
## 3 Results and Discussion
### Microbial Counts  
Analyses revealed that no evidence was found of _Salmonella_ spp. in the chito samples. Furthermore, counts of moulds and yeasts, coliforms, and coagulase-positive staphylococci were under detectable levels (<10 CFU/g) in both samples. These results suggest that the processing of chito with sodium chloride and drying conferred a degree of stability and protection against these bacterial groups. In particular, [PERSON] et al. [34] and [PERSON] et al. [35] argued that the salt-tolerant bacteria belonging to the Micrococaceae family are usually isolated in raw-cured meat products, such as ham or Spanish beef cecina. These microorganisms can persist until the final manufacturing stages due to their high tolerance for salt (most strains survive in the presence of 10% NaCl) as well as their resistance to low \(\mathrm{a_{w}}\) and high osmotic pressure conditions. However, in this study, the overall occurrence of coagulase-positive staphylococci in chito (NP and P) was low.  
On the other hand, for each year, no significant difference (\(P>0.05\)) between NP and P was observed for TMBC and LAB (Table 4). Furthermore, comparing between years, microbial analyses revealed that, for the LAB population, there were no significant differences (\(P>0.05\)). However, TMBC was predominantly higher in 2022 and 2023 than in 2021 for NP (6.68, 6.62, and 5.92 log CFU/g, respectively), whereas the highest TMBC values were detected in 2022 for P (7.0 log CFU/g). These findings could be related to various post-slaughter factors, such as handling, processing, storage conditions, and packaging. It is worth mentioning that the level of TMBC found in chito (especially for 2021) was slightly higher than that obtained in a study previously carried out on fresh goat meat (5.6-5.8 log CFU/g) (unpublished data), supporting the theory of re-contamination during chito processing. [PERSON] et al. [5] found higher counts in beef cecina (intermediate moisture meat) (7.4-9.6 log CFU/g) coming from different states of Mexico than those recommended in the Mexican Official Standard [36] for raw meat (6.7 log CFU/g). For cecina produced in Oaxaca state, the count for mesophilic aerobic microorganisms was \(30\times 10^{6}\) (7.4 log CFU/g). In addition, [PERSON] et al. [1] also reported total microbial counts that ranged from 6.2 to 9.7 log CFU/g in commercial biltong samples. Thus, although chito could represent a risk (in view of its ease of contamination), cooking the meat product can decrease the number of microorganisms. The chito product is not usually consumed without thermal processing, as is the case with biltong, which can be eaten raw without prior rehydration and/or cooking.  
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{l c c c c c} \hline \hline  &
\begin{tabular}{c} **Processing** \\ **Year** \\ \end{tabular} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**Treatments**} & \multicolumn{1}{c}{**SEM**} & \multicolumn{1}{c}{**P-Level**} \\ \hline  & & **NP** & **P** & & \\ \hline TMBC & 2021 & 5.92 \({}^{\mathrm{aB}}\) & 5.95 \({}^{\mathrm{aB}}\) & 0.13 & NS \\  & 2022 & 6.68 \({}^{\mathrm{aA}}\) & 7.00 \({}^{\mathrm{aA}}\) & 0.20 & NS \\  & 2023 & 6.62 \({}^{\mathrm{aA}}\) & 6.10 \({}^{\mathrm{aB}}\) & 0.16 & NS \\ SEM & & 0.11 & 0.19 & & \\ \(P\)-level & & ** & & \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table}
Table 4: Mean values of microbial counts (log CFU/g) of chito.