Low salt pig-meat products and novel formulations

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
   1. Objectives:
   2. Learning goals
   3. Teacher page
2. Section 1: Salt and Human Health
   1. Sodium and human physiology
   2. Trends in salt consumption
   3. Dietary salt as a health hazard
   4. Epidemiological studies
   5. High blood pressure
   6. Stroke
   7. Death from cardiovascular disease
   8. Osteoporosis
   9. Stomach cancer
   10. References
3. Section 2: Salt Content of Pig-meat Products
   1. Salt concentration in different pig-meat products
   2. Low-salt products in Europe
   3. Comparisons between various processed products
   4. References
4. Section 3: Science of salt in pig products
   1. From muscle to meat
   2. Effect of salt content on chemical and physical properties and implications for organoleptic properties
   3. Problems related to meat pH
   4. Effect of salt content on microbiological properties in processed meat products
   5. Consequences of reducing salt content
   6. References
5. Section 4 Low-salt Pig Meat Formulations
   1. General points to consider when manufacturing processed pork
   2. Balancing low salt with substitutes, enhancers and alternatives
   3. Effect of low sodium on eating quality, shelf-life and functional properties
   4. Optimum concentrations
   5. Cooked sausages
   6. Frankfurters
   7. Dry fermented sausage
   8. Ground patties
   9. Dry-cured ham
   10. Restructured meats (wet cured ham)
   11. Bacon
   12. Novel approaches in product formulation
   13. Other approaches
   14. Conclusions
   15. References
6. Discussion
7. Glossary
8. Completion
   1. Comments
   2. Self assessment
   3. Evaluation
9. Acknowledgment

Ground patties

The role of salt in patties is not as essential as in other products; therefore salt can be reduced to very low levels without having major effects on the final product. An example is described here.

• Reduced salt and added phosphate

Phosphate was added (fat content 14%, 420 mg Na/100 g with phosphate added and 680 mg Na/100 g without phosphate added):

- A weakness in the flavour intensity was found to be a more restrictive factor than texture when producing low-salt meat patties.

- When phosphate was added cooking loss was reduced. The increase in fat content increased saltiness at a higher rate in the patties without phosphate than in those with phosphate; however, it increased the cooking loss in patties with and without phosphate. There was a positive relationship between fat content and juiciness, whatever the sodium content (Ruusunen et al., 2005)

The cooking and reheating method that is used, however, might have an important influence on the physical and organoleptic characteristics of the product. This seems to be particularly important in ground patties (Jeong et al., 2007; Choi et al., 2008). The following is an example.

Effect of reheating methods in patties with various salt and phosphate levels

Regardless of their fat and salt content, patties reheated under an electric grill had higher water content than those reheated in a microwave oven. Patties with a higher salt level (2%) and added phosphate (0.3%) that were cooked and reheated in a microwave oven had the hardest texture. Conversely, lower salt levels (1%) without added phosphate showed significantly lower hardness regardless of the heating method (Choi et al., 2008).