20 which may be any conventional grinder meat blender or the like next an edible acidulant at 15 and possibly other ingredients 17 seasonings etc as described herein are added to the meat the combined mixture is further ground and prior to passing the meat mixture to the forming stage a bacterial culture is added at 25 the culture in combination with the acidulant begins the fermentation process that is the bacteria begins to produce acid in addition to the beneficial addition of the acidulant next the mixture is passed to a forming and shaping step designated at 30 in which the meat is extruded to form the desired shape the shaped sausage is allowed to ferment for a period of time at step 40 to produce a product that may undergo some additional treatment steps at 50 such as heating drying and or cooking prior to being packaged turning briefly to fig2 the illustration depicts a number of configurations and shapes that may be produced in connection with the present embodiment other configurations shapes designs etc are of course possible in order to further illustrate the inventive process the following example is given although the example is presented to illustrate certain specific embodiments of the invention it is not to be construed to restrict the scope and spirit of the invention a sample of dry sausage pepperoni was produced in accordance with the inventive process first the meat approximately 5 kg was ground and then admixed with the.