Reducing the sodium content without modifying the quality of beef burgers by adding micronized salt

This study determined the effect of the incorporation of micronized salt on physicochemical, yield and consumer's sensory characteristics of beef burger. The micronized salt was obtained by sieving the commercial salt in a 60-mesh stainless steel sieve. The commercial (regular salt) and micronized salt presented differences in the mean size, size distribution and bulk density. Half of the amount of the micronized salt was mixed with pork back fat, and the other half was added to the meat batter in the beef burger manufacture. A Pivot profile method was used with consumers to describe the sensory properties of the burger samples (ranging from 0.5% to 1.5% NaCl). The Pivot profile data revealed that treatments with 0.75% and 0.5% micronized salt were mainly characterized as dry, besides showing the highest cooking loss and diameter reduction. However, beef burgers with 1.0% micronized salt and 1.5% regular salt had similar perceived salty taste. In terms of salt reduction, the results indicated that it would be possible to reduce salt from 1.5% to 1.0% when using micronized salt, without affecting the pH, color parameters, yield properties and some sensory characteristics of the burger, such as salty, tasty, juicy, fatty, and spicy. Therefore, this strategy promises great potential for industrial application in products that contain lipids in their composition, such as meat products.