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Abstract: The influence of sodium chloride on the water holding capacity of meat is well known and described in literature. An increase in water holding capacity is associated with an increase in the swelling pressure in the protein matrix. A novel device was used to measure the swelling pressure during brine salting of muscle cylinders (40×50mm), in different NaCl brine concentrations (2.5 to 25%) over 6days at 4°C. Changes in meat composition, weight and height of non-constrained control samples were also measured. The aim of this work was to prove the feasibility of using the developed device in order to quantify the influence of the brine concentration on the magnitude of the swelling pressure. The obtained results indicated the adequacy of the developed device for measuring the meat swelling, while a good correlation of the swelling pressure and the changes in weight and height of the samples was observed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The reduction of added sodium chloride in dry-cured ham has been proposed to decrease the amount of sodium in the diet. The effect of substituting sodium chloride by potassium chloride, calcium chloride and magnesium chloride in some physicochemical characteristics of dry-cured ham throughout the post-salting stage was evaluated. The partial replacement of NaCl had significant effects on salt content at the end of the post-salting stage in the traditional process and this significantly affected a w. The results showed that lower sodium hams, salted with a combination of NaCl and KCl, needed a maximum of 16days more (32% increase) of post-salting than hams salted with 100% NaCl, while hams salted with a combination of NaCl, KCl, CaCl2 and MgCl2 needed a maximum of 26days more (52% increase). [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The partial replacement of sodium chloride by other salts has been proposed as a possible strategy to reduce the sodium content of cured meat products. Nevertheless, there is very little knowledge as regards the influence of salts other than sodium chloride on salting kinetics. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect brought about by substituting sodium chloride with potassium, calcium and magnesium chloride on the salting kinetics of dry cured loins. The results showed very important changes in the salting pattern depending on the type of salts. Partial substitution of sodium affected both water and ion transport during the salting process. The presence of KCl decreased water loss while CaCl2 and MgCl2 had the opposite effect. However, replacement of up to 50% NaCl by KCl had no significant effect on the salting kinetics in the case of the control formulation. Calcium and magnesium cations penetrated with difficulty into the muscle remaining in the brine formed during the pile salting process. Moreover, the presence of calcium and magnesium cations considerably reduced the sodium and potassium content of the salted loin. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Cured tuna loin is a typical dry-salted product in Spain. Traditionally, loins are cleaned, stacked and smothered in sea salts, washed in bins with fresh running water, pressed and hung to dry. The aim of this study was to characterize the simultaneous thawing and salting of frozen tuna loins by using dry salt or brine and obtain a predictive equation which enable to determine the time needed to reach the same NaCl concentration as the commercial product. A reduction of the thawing time when using the simultaneous brine thawing and salting procedures was observed. A clear shortening of the processing time required to achieve the same NaCl concentration as in the commercial samples is observed when using the simultaneous thawing and salting process (89.5% and 42.8% time reduction for the brine and solid salt thawing and salting procedures, respectively). [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Salting, is one of the fundamental operations in Spanish cured ham manufacturing, and is basic in order to preserve the product throughout its processing and storage. Pile salting is the method traditionally employed to accomplish this step. The use of frozen raw material has become quite frequent in the industry, and it implies a preliminary thawing step in a cold chamber. The aim of this study is the analysis of the first step in ham production (salting) and the influence of simultaneous brine thawing/salting and vacuum impregnation in the salting stage of Spanish cured ham. The results indicated a reduction in the salting time when using the brine thawing/salting method, which was performed together with vacuum impregnation. Further studies need to be done in order to fully understand the influence of these new salting methods on the following manufacturing steps and the final quality characteristics. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper describes a new controlled swelling device fabricated to measure the corresponding swelling pressure of meat immersed in brine throughout salting. To set up the proposed device, swelling in pieces of pork meat immersed in a 5% (w/w) NaCl brine was studied. It is well known and described in literature the influence of NaCl on the water holding capacity of meat. The increase in that value has been related with the existence of swelling pressures in the protein matrix. The obtained results indicated that the developed device provides swelling pressure values which are in accordance with the measured changes in composition, weight and height of non-constrained samples. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]