Reported salt levels in whole-muscle cured meat products differ substantially within and among European countries, providing substantial scope for salt reduction across this sector. The objective of this study was to identify the minimum acceptable salt levels in typical whole-muscle cured products in terms of physicochemical, microbial and sensorial properties. Salt levels in a small selection of commercial Irish meat products were determined to establish a baseline for reduction. Subsequently, eight different back bacon rasher and cooked ham products were produced with varying levels of salt: 2.9%, 2.5%, 2% and 1.5% for bacon, and 2%, 1.6%, 1.0% and 0.8% for ham. Salt reduction produced products with significantly harder texture and higher microbial counts, with no difference in the colour and affecting the sensory properties. Nonetheless, salt reduction proved to be feasible to levels of 34% and 19% in bacon and ham products, respectively, compared to baseline.

在欧洲国家内部和之间，全肌肉腌制肉制品中报告的盐含量存在很大差异，这为该部门的减盐提供了很大空间。这项研究的目的是从理化，微生物和感官特性方面确定典型的全肌肉固化产品中的最低可接受盐含量。确定了少量爱尔兰商品肉类产品中的盐含量，以建立降低的基线。随后，生产了八种不同的含盐量不同的后熏腊肠和熟火腿产品：熏肉为2.9％，2.5％，2％和1.5％，火腿为2％，1.6％，1.0％和0.8％。减盐生产的产品质地明显坚硬，微生物数量更高，而颜色没有差异且不会影响感官特性。尽管如此，