Production of a safe cured meat with low residual nitrite using nitrite substitutes

This work provided a new no-added-nitrite cured meat and an innovative method for substituting nitrite with Lactobacillus fermentum RC4 and Lactobacillus plantarum B6 as starters, beet red and Monascus color as coloring agents, and nisin as antibiotic. Three groups of cured meat were prepared: a no-added-nitrite experimental group (EG), a control group to which only salt was added (CG-S) and a control group to which both salt and nitrite were added (CG-N). After 20 days storage period at 18-20 °C, EG exhibited lower nitrite contents, better sensory characteristics, a greater content of free fatty acids, more volatile compounds, and more plate counts but without pathogenic bacteria compared to EG-S and CG-N. 3-hydroxy-2-butanone, 3-methyl-butanal, 2-methyl-butanal, 2, 4-heptadienal, heptanal, octanal and nonanal were the main flavor substances and palmitic acid, stearic acid, oleic acid, linoleic acid were main FFAs of EG. The no-added nitrite cured meat prepared by this novel method can improve the quality of cured meat and ensure low nitrite content.