## 3 Results and Discussion
### Microbiological Analysis  
The obtained results of microbiological analyses are presented in Table 7 and can be divided into two groups. The first group includes the results of LAB and AAB bacteria and is responsible for the quality of the properly conducted fermentation process. Properly selected starters for product fermentation and properly conducted fermentation and meat maturation processes affect the biopreservation and good quality of the study meat products. The experimental design included two control groups of the study products, which corresponded to the traditional methods of preserving ripening meat products (C--addition of salt, P--addition of curing salts). Both methods protect the product from microbiological spoilage while allowing the development of beneficial lactic microflora. In sausages with the addition of acetic acid bacteria starters, this effect was also achieved. In control samples (C), the highest number of LAB was observed, approx. 8 log CFU/g of product. In cured sausages (P), this count was two log orders lower. Cured sausages (P) were also characterized by significantly the lowest number of LAB after the storage period compared to the other research variants. The number of LAB bacteria in sausages O1 and O2 remained at a constant level, approx. 7 log CFU/g. In these products, the number of AAB bacteria also did not change and amounted to an average of 3 log CFU/g throughout the entire research period. In the control samples, the number of ABBs decreased by 1.21 and 1.79 log CFU/g in samples C and P, respectively. The second group of results concerns microbiological safety, which was determined in the study sausages using total viable count, total count of _Enterobacteriaceae_, _Staphylococcus aureus_, and _Escherichia coli_ analyses. In this respect, all study variants of dry fermented sausages were characterized by good quality. The highest \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c} \hline \hline \multirow{2}{*}{**Parameter**} & \multirow{2}{*}{**Time**} & \multicolumn{3}{c}{**Treatment**} \\ \cline{3-5}  & & **C** & **P** & **O1** & **O2** \\ \hline \multirow{2}{*}{ABTS (\%)} & 0 & 68.86 \(\pm\) 2.22 \({}^{\text{aAB}}\) & 66.77 \(\pm\) 1.78 \({}^{\text{aA}}\) & 70.34 \(\pm\) 0.99 \({}^{\text{aB}}\) & 74.01 \(\pm\) 1.34 \({}^{\text{aC}}\) \\  & 1 & 77.77 \(\pm\) 0.89 \({}^{\text{B}}\) & 76.16 \(\pm\) 0.92 \({}^{\text{aA}}\) & 79.88 \(\pm\) 0.81 \({}^{\text{aC}}\) & 83.83 \(\pm\) 0.67 \({}^{\text{bD}}\) \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}  
* The values are expressed as means \(\pm\) standard deviations; \({}^{\text{a,b}}\) the means marked with lowercase letters differ significantly between times (\(p\) \(<\) 0.05); \({}^{\text{A,B,C,D}}\) means marked with uppercase letters differ significantly between treatments (\(p\) \(<\) 0.05).  
\end{table} 
Table 6: Antioxidant activity of dry fermented sausages during storage. total number of _Enterobacteriaceae_ was found only in control products with added salt (C). The biopreservative effect was achieved in the variants with added AAB starters at a level comparable (O1) or better (O2) than the cured sausage sample (P). Based on our own results, the synergistic effect of LAB and AAB bacteria was demonstrated. In sausage samples, where the number of AAB was constant throughout the storage period, a high constant number of LAB was also observed. The metabolic activity of lactic acid bacteria is widely known in meat technology as a natural method of preserving fermented foods. LABs are also the group of microorganisms most frequently studied for their probiotic and postbiotic properties [47]. Postbiotics obtained from LABs exhibit inhibitory effects on various groups of microorganisms including pathogens of Listeria monocytogenes, Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Salmonella spp., and various groups of yeast and molds causing food spoilage [47,48].