To what extent is it possible to reduce the salt content in processed meats?

Processed meat products (charcuterie) companies are under pressure to reduce the salt content of their products to address a public health issue. One of the target products is cooked ham, the processed meat product most consumed in France. But how far is it possible to go with this reduction in salt content without affecting product quality and costs?

This work focused on the cooking-cooling stage of the process which is crucial for the main quality traits of cooked ham: the cohesion between the different muscles present in each slice and the transfer of juice which determine the process yield. The involved phenomena were studied during a PhD work under laboratory conditions which mimicked the industrial process used to obtain low-salted products. Results prove that it is possible, under laboratory conditions, to reduce the salt content to 0.8% in the cooked ham instead of 1.8%, which is the current average content, without affecting the cooking yield or the cohesion between the muscles. 

Further research is needed to be able to transfer such a result at industrial scale and to better understand the effect of salt reduction on the organoleptic and technological qualities of cooked ham.

Partners:

This study has been found by l'Agence Nationale de la Recherche in the project ANR-09-ALIA-013-01 "Na-" with l’Institut Français du Porc.