## 2 Materials and Methods
### Growth Potential  
To determine a growth potential of \(L\). _monocytogenes_ AC and control products were stored for 10 days at 6 \({}^{\circ}\)C and sampled at the 2 nd, 4 th, 6 th, 8 th and 10 th day after inoculation with the pathogen. At each sampling time, 4 independent replicates were taken for analysis. To inoculate AC and control products, a cocktail of three \(L\). _monocytogenes_ strains was used. One strain originated from ATCC collection (7644) and two strains of \(L\). _monocytogenes_ (L96 and L97) which were previously isolated from meat products at the laboratory of Industrial and Food Microbiology were used. The strains were kept in microbanks (Biomaxima, Lublin, Poland) at \(-80\)\({}^{\circ}\)C until the start of the study. Strains were cultivated separately on TSA (Iryptone Soya Agar; Merck, Germany) at 37 \({}^{\circ}\)C for 24 h and then suspended in physiological liquid (0.85% saline) to obtain the optical density of 0.5 McFarland's (McFarland Densimeter DEN-18 V2 AW BioSan, Latvia) which corresponded to the population of \(10^{8}\) CFU/mL. The suspension was two-fold diluted to obtain \(10^{6}\) CFU/mL. A cocktail of strains in a 1:1:1 ratio was prepared in a sterile test tube. Then the cells were harvested by centrifugation at 7000 rpm for 15 min and suspended in the same amount of physiological liquid as the aliquot of removed medium. The temperature of physiological liquid was 4 \({}^{\circ}\)C to adapt the bacteria to a low temperature. The original packages containing products were aseptically opened and sausages were placed on 6 separate plastic trays (each tray contained 4 sausages, each sausage was treated as an independent replication for each sampling time--4 independent replicates for each time point and product type; a total number of samples analyzed \(n=24\) for each product, a total \(n=48\) samples). Each sausage surface was inoculated with 0.1 mL of the \(L\). _monocytogenes_ cocktail using a pipette and sterile cell spreader to distribute a cocktail evenly on the surface of each sample [17]. After inoculation products were placed into a laminar airflow chamber and kept for 30 min to let the sausages' surface dry and to allow bacteria to attach to the products' surface. Then, the packages were vacuum-packed, stored at 6 \({}^{\circ}\)C and sampled in 2-day intervals until the 10 th day. The temperature of 6 \({}^{\circ}\)C was used due to the fact that it was the highest storage temperature indicated by the producer \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{l c c} \hline \hline
**Attribute** & **Control** & **Alternatively Cured** \\ \hline \multirow{6}{*}{Composition} & meat from pork ham (94\%), & \\  & salt, glucose, stabilizer: & \\  & sodium citrate, aromas, & pork, salt, spices, spices \\  & acidity regulator: sodium & extracts, aromas, dried acerola \\  & ascorbate, spices extracts, & \\  & preservative: sodium nitrite & \\ \multirow{2}{*}{Additional information} & without the addition of & 100 g of the product was \\  & monosodium glutamate & obtained from 100 g of pork; \\  & gluten-free; preservative-free \\ \multirow{2}{*}{Nutritional value in 100 g} & \multirow{2}{*}{1304/315} \\   Energy (kJ/kcal) & & 25 \\   Fat (g) & & 28 \\ \multirow{2}{*}{Saturated fatty acids} & 10 & 10 \\   Car carbohydrates & 0.7 & 0 \\ \multirow{2}{*}{Sugars} & 0.7 & 0 \\ \multirow{2}{*}{Protein} & 14 & 15 \\ \multirow{2}{*}{Salt} & 2.1 & 2.3 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 1: Characteristics of sausages used in the study. on the products' label (\"stored at the temperature range from 0 \({}^{\circ}\)C to 6 \({}^{\circ}\)C\"). At each time point, one tray for each product's type was opened and 10 g of each of the 4 sausages assigned to this particular time point, was aseptically weighed and homogenized in a Stomacher with 90 mL of physiological liquid (0.85% saline). Then, the next serial dilution was prepared using 1 mL of the suspension and 9 mL of sterile physiological liquid. These two dilutions were used to determine the _L.