The aim of this work was to compare the shelf-life of sliced ham without fat layer storage in a range of temperature between 1º and 4ºC using the following treatments: vacuum packing (VP) and packing with modified atmosphere (MA) (50% of N2 and 50% of O2) using flexible sheets of PEAD/LDPE (MA1) and PVDC/EVA/LDPE (MA2) on microbiological and physical chemical parameters for 35 days. Analysis of plate count of microorganisms, pH and humidity were conduced to evaluate the shelf-life of ham. In the first day of analyze the countings of Staphylococcus aureus had been inferior to 10² CFU/g and for the other microorganisms inferior to 10¹ CFU/g. The packed with modified atmosphere increased five days in the shelf-life of the product when compared to vacuum packing. The initial pH (6.4) increased to 6.55, 6.58 and 6.63 on VP MA1 and MA2, respectively. The treatment MA2 increased the shelf-life when compared to modified atmosphere (1).
modified atmosphere; polyethylene; polyamide
