The challenge for the meat industry is developing meat products that contain no additives, have similar sensory properties as traditional nitrite-cured products and will persist throughout their shelf life with the same level of quality and safety. In this study, new recipes with no additives or with food additive substitutes of natural origin were compared with commercially available products. It was concluded that the new meat products – cooked ham (as representative of thermally processed meat products) and fermented sausage had concentrations of nitrite and nitrate below the method’s limit of quantification during the entire shelf life period. Acerola has successfully replaced sodium ascorbate as a natural source of ascorbic acid in meat products. Furthermore, it was proved that no phosphates, comparable to those from raw meat, were added to meat products. Using sensory evaluation, cooked ham and fermented sausage were classified into the highest quality category, in terms of color, flavor, odor and texture during the entire shelf life, and were evaluated as microbiologically safe, according to the Guide for Microbiological Criteria for Foodstuffs (Ministry of Agriculture, March 2011).