Scientists from the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition at Michigan State University published in August 2024 in the J. Food Protection on the effects of sausage drying on pathogen survival. The safety of uncooked fermented, dried sausages relies upon controlled fermentation and drying that inactivates pathogenic bacteria. The study examines the drying length required to achieve a target pathogen reduction across a range of sausage diameters. Sausage batter was inoculated with 5 strains each of E. coli O157:H7, L. monocytogenes, and S. enterica. Smaller diameter sausages reached the desired pathogen reduction and target aw of 0.85 sooner than larger ones. However, the time to achieve the target aw did not align with the time to achieve the pathogen reduction targets, suggesting that aw alone is not a reliable safety indicator. Larger sausages achieved the target pathogen reduction without reaching the target aw. The research contributes to developing more precise safety protocols for producing dry and semi-dry fermented sausages. @ https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0362028X24001376?dgcid=raven_sd_aip_email