The effect of sodium chloride content and temperature on pork meat isotherms

The knowledge of sorption isotherms is essential for understanding the drying process. Throughout the dry cured meat process, changes occur in the NaCl content and temperature on the surface of meat products. The aim of this study was to obtain the desorption isotherms from raw and salted meat at different air temperatures and NaCl content. The desorption characteristics were studied in the relative humidity range of 11.2 to 94.5 % at storage temperatures of 5, 13 and 26°C and at 0, 8, 20 and 30% (dm) of added salt (NaCl). The salted meat samples isotherms at 26°C shows a breaking point between water activities (a(w)) of 0.70 and 0.75. At a(w) lower than 0.70, NaCl content and temperature have only a slight effect on water content equilibrium. At a(w) above 0.75, water content equilibrium increased with the increase in NaCl content and the decrease in temperature. A significant NaCl*Temp interaction was detected at a(W) 0.903 and 0.946.