Strategies to turn healthier and safer different meat products with reduced sodium content

Abstract

The objective of this study is to evaluate different strategies to make meat products with reduced sodium content even healthier and safer. The first serie of experiments will be carried out in order to find the formulations with lower sodium content but still accepted by consumers, evaluating three different methods of sodium reduction in three different meat products, as follows: 1) Sausages - directly reduction of sodium chloride, 2) Bologna - replacement of sodium chloride by PuraQArome Na4 and 3) Nuggets - replacement of sodium chloride by calcium chloride. After that, three different strategies will be evaluated to make these meat products with reduced sodium content even safer and healthier, namely: 1) Sausages will be produced with gamma radiation treatment in order to increase its safety and microbiological stability; 2) Bologna will be prepared replacement animal fat by Echium oil (stearidonic acid source) in order to improve fatty acids profile and 3) Chicken nuggets will be added with Chia flour as replacer of chicken skin, aiming fatty acids profile improvement and fibers enrichment. The processed meat products will be characterized by different physicochemical methodologies (proximate composition, fatty acids profile, water activity) and evaluated regarding their stability during refrigerated (sausages and bolognas) or frozen (nuggets) storage in terms of lipid oxidation (TBARS index), color (L*, a*, b*), pH value, texture profile and sensory evaluations of acceptability. All treatments will be evaluated in triplicate. (AU)