curedmeat.com / Safety / Hazards
Salmonellosis, haemolytic uraemic syndrome
Salmonella and shiga-toxin producing E. coli
Present on raw meat. Tolerates drying and adapts to acid, so neither fermentation nor drying reliably removes it.
Controls, with the source for each
| Parameter | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Lethality target | at least 5 log reduction of Salmonella, and 5 log of STEC for products containing beef | FSIS-GD-2023-0002 |
| What fermentation does not do | fermentation itself is not a particularly effective lethality treatment | FSIS-GD-2023-0002 |
| What drying does not do | drying the product does not necessarily result in an adequate reduction of Salmonella | FSIS-GD-2014-0010 |
What fermentation does not do. FSIS states this directly and cites Faith et al. 1997 and 1998, Hussein et al. 2022 and Ihnot et al. 1998. One reason given is that bacteria become acid tolerant during a slow fermentation.
What drying does not do. Salmonella can be resistant to drying. A shelf-stable water activity is not a lethality treatment.
Why it matters here
This is the belief that has caused most of the recorded outbreaks in cured products: that fermenting and drying a sausage is itself a kill step. FSIS states plainly that it is not.
Recorded outbreaks in cured products
| Product | Year | Agent | Cases | Process | Cause |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prosciutto, capocollo, calabrese, soppressata | 2010 | Salmonella Montevideo | 272 cases across 45 states | Salt-cured, fermented and dried | Contaminated red and black pepper |
| Lebanon bologna | 2011 | E. coli O157:H7 | 13 cases in MD, NJ, NC, OH, PA | Fermented | Under-processing |
| Italian-style meats | 2021 | Salmonella Infantis and Typhimurium | 40 cases across 17 states | Fermented and dried | Under-processing |
Notes
- The 2010 outbreak is the one worth studying. The pathogen came in on the pepper, not on the meat, and no amount of attention to the meat supply would have caught it.
Steps that bear on this hazard
What this page is not
This page reports published parameters. It does not tell you that any preparation is safe. Whether a specific product met a parameter is a question about that product, answered by measuring it, and no page can do that for you.
FSIS guideline identifiers and their URLs are listed on the methodology page. CFR citations are to the Electronic Code of Federal Regulations, Title 9, as in force on 1 January 2026.