# Influence of LAB Fermentation on the Color Stability and Oxidative Changes in Dry-Cured Meat
## 3 Results  
The results of the evaluation of the physicochemical parameters (pH and a\({}_{\mathrm{w}}\)) of the fermented meat products are presented in Table 1.  
As shown in Table 1, the lowest pH value was observed in the LOCK test (5.607; \(p\) < 0.05), whereas the other research variants did not differ statistically significantly (\(p\) > 0.05) after 6 months of aging, reaching an average pH value of 5.666. With time, the pH value started fluctuating, i.e., it increased after 9 months and decreased in the 12 th month of ripening of the pork joins. These changes were statistically significant only in the LAB samples. Among these, the biggest change was observed in the LOCK test, which increased the pH of the products by 0.361 units after 9 months. At the end of the research period (12 months), the influence of LAB on the pH value of the products was not observed,and there were no statistically significant differences (\(p>0.05\)). The LOCK test was also characterized by the most dynamic changes in \(\rm{a_{w}}\) in the products, recording the largest increase in the analyzed period. In the 12 th month of aging, the influence of LAB on \(\rm{a_{w}}\) was observed, where a statistically significantly (\(p>0.05\)) higher \(\rm{a_{w}}\) was observed in LOCK and BB12 samples (average 0.831), whereas in BAUER samples, \(\rm{a_{w}}\) was significantly lower (0.810; \(p<0.05\)) than that of samples without LAB. The influence of LAB strains on the color of the fermented meat products is presented in Table 2. The influence of LAB strains on the brightness (\(L^{*}\)) of the products was observed. The LAB samples were significantly brighter than the control samples (except for the BAUER test after 12 months of aging). In LOCK and BB samples, no effect of the storage time on the changes in the \(L^{*}\) parameter was observed. However, samples inoculated with the Lactobacillus acidophilus Bauer strain L0938 (BAUER) were an exception in which significant darkening of the color was observed after 12 months of aging (decrease in the \(L^{*}\) parameter by 5.26 units) compared with that at the beginning of the research period (6 months) (\(p<0.05\)). Darkening was also observed in samples subjected to spontaneous fermentation (C) in the 9 th month of aging (\(p<0.05\)), but this change was not permanent as the color lightened to the initial level in the next research period. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c} \hline \hline \multirow{2}{*}{**Parameter**} & \multirow{2}{*}{**Time [Month]**} & \multicolumn{4}{c}{**Variants**} \\ \cline{3-6}  & & **C** & **LOCK** & **BB** & **BAUER** \\ \hline \multirow{4}{*}{\(L^{*}\)} & 6 & 5.658 \(\pm\) 0.003 \({}^{\rm{Ab}}\) & 5.607 \(\pm\) 0.008 \({}^{\rm{Bc}}\) & 5.657 \(\pm\) 0.002 \({}^{\rm{Ab}}\) & 5.681 \(\pm\) 0.018 \({}^{\rm{Aa}}\) \\  & 9 & 5.961 \(\pm\) 0.015 \({}^{\rm{Aa}}\) & 5.916 \(\pm\) 0.016 \({}^{\rm{Ab}}\) & 5.754 \(\pm\) 0.004 \({}^{\rm{Ba}}\) & 5.706 \(\pm\) 0.037 \({}^{\rm{Ba}}\) \\  & 12 & 5.923 \(\pm\) 0.058 \({}^{\rm{Aa}}\) & 5.968 \(\pm\) 0.020 \({}^{\rm{Aa}}\) & 5.743 \(\pm\) 0.013 \({}^{\rm{Ba}}\) & 5.643 \(\pm\) 0.015 \({}^{\rm{Ca}}\) \\  & 6 & 0.805 \(\pm\) 0.004 \({}^{\rm{Bb}}\) & 0.815 \(\pm\) 0.003 \({}^{\rm{Bb}}\) & 0.841 \(\pm\) 0.003 \({}^{\rm{Aa}}\) & 0.809 \(\pm\) 0.003 \({}^{\rm{Bb}}\) \\ \multirow{4}{*}{\(\rm{a_{w}}\)} & 9 & 0.814 \(\pm\) 0.003 \({}^{\rm{Ba}}\) & 0.834 \(\pm\) 0.001 \({}^{\rm{Aa}}\) & 0.834 \(\pm\) 0.001 \({}^{\rm{Ab}}\) & 0.819 \(\pm\) 0.001 \({}^{\rm{Ca}}\) \\  & 12 & 0.815 \(\pm\) 0.002 \({}^{\rm{Ba}}\) & 0.831 \(\pm\) 0.001 \({}^{\rm{Aa}}\) & 0.832 \(\pm\) 0.001 \({}^{\rm{Ab}}\) & 0.810 \(\pm\) 0.001 \({}^{\rm{Cb}}\) \\ \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 1: The pH and water activity (\(\rm{a_{w}}\)) of fermented meat products.