Research progress in technology solutions for sodium reduction in meat products

Abstract

Meat products comprise one of the major sources of sodium,in the form of sodium chloride(salt) but excessive intake of sodium had been linked to hypertension,consequently increased risk of cardiovascular diseases thus it's necessary to produce low sodium meat products to meet the consumers and governments demand for healthy meat products. This article provides an overview of the following five major approaches commonly practiced to reducing the sodium content of meat products:by adding salt in low quantity or optimizing the physical form of salt,applications of salt substitutes(such as potassium chloride) to replace the part of salt, employ flavor enhancers and masking agents, utilization of quality improvers( such as transglutaminase and food gums), and by introducing new processing technologies( such as pressure processing),synergistic technologies and effective formulations. Since sodium chloride affects the flavor,texture and shelf life of meat products,such properties should be given due care while developing low sodium meat products and accordingly different approaches had been proposed to processing of such products.Because there were no panaceas in terms of a single technology that could be used to reduce sodium in meat products,a range of functional ingredient combinations and processing technologies must be developed and/or optimised. In future,it was anticipated that these challenges would be overcome to provide well acceptable and cost-effective healthier meat products to the consumer.