In recent years, increase of awareness of the community towards healthy nutrition and changes in nutritional habits have increased the demand for healthier products in the food industry. Salt has been used as a protective component in the production of various foods since the early ages. Hovewer overconsumption of salt causes high blood pressure with the increasing the risk of cardiological diseases and stroke besides that participate in the pathophysiologic basis of some important diseases such as osteoporosis, asthma and obesity. Today, daily salt consumption by adults is well above the recommended level, and the most of the dietary salt consumption comes from processed foods and processed meat products contain %20 of the total amount of salt content of the diet. Therefore within the scope of reducing salt consumption, searches related to lowering salt ratio in the formulations of meat products have accelerated. Nevertheless salt has great importance in meat industry. Since the functions of salt in the meat products such as decrement of water activity and the activity of some enzymes, increment of water retention capacity by enabling protein solubilisation, antimicrobial property, also improvement of the product texture and characteristic salty flavor, it’s difficult completely removing salt from meat products formulations. For this reason, researchers have developed new strategies for salt reduction in the meat industry. The first is to directly reduce the amount of sodium added to meat products considering sensorial acceptance. Secondly, partial or complete replacement of sodium chloride with other chloride salts such as calcium, lithium, magnesium and potassium. The third solution is the use of masking agents or various flavor enhancers such as lactates, sulphates, yeast extracts, monosodium glutamate and aroma and finally altering the size or shape of the salt particles. In recent years, alternative processing techniques such as high pressure technology and ultrasound technology have been tried with the intent of salt reduction in meat products.
Anahtar Kelimeler: Meat, Meat products, Salt, Health, Nutrition
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