Salted Meat Products: Nutritional Characteristics, Processing and Strategies for Sodium Reduction

The category of salted meat products is very diversified and are widely appreciated and consumed worldwide due to their unique sensory characteristics and high nutritional value. As some salted meat products are stable at ambient temperature, they are considered a safe strategy. However, they have been criticized due to some high levels of sodium, which if consumed in excess may increase the risk of developing certain health disorders. In this context, this work discusses in detail, the characteristics, processing, different strategies for sodium reduction and the effect of sodium chloride (NaCl) reduction in the category of salted meat products, as well as the main new technologies used in the salting and dehydration stages to optimize processes and improve the quality of final products.