Effect of Sodium-Alternative Curing Salts on Physicochemical Properties during Salami Manufacture

To identify the effect of sodium-alternative curing salts on the quality properties of salami through the ripening process, four salami treatments were prepared with different curing salts, T1 (-control, NaCl 1.9%), T2 (+control, NaCl 1.9%+NaNO₂ 0.01%), T3 (KCl 1.9%+NaNO₂ 0.01%), and T4 (MgCl₂ 1.9%+NaNO₂ 0.01%), under 40 days ripening conditions. Sodium-alternative salts (T3 or T4) showed characteristically different quality traits compared with T2. Especially, T3 had lower pH, water activity, volatile basic nitrogen, and lipid oxidation after 20 days of ripening period, compare with T2 or T4 (p<0.05). Sodium nitrite had critical impact on increased a* values, and T3 showed higher a* values compared with T2 or T4 (p<0.05). Sodium nitrite reduced initial growth of coliforms but sodium-alternative salts did not affect microbial growth patterns. T2-T4 containing sodium nitrite had higher content of umami nucleotide flavor compounds compared with T1, regardless of the chlorine salt species. The combined use of sodium-alternative curing salts and minimal sodium nitrite was found to be an applicable strategy on development of low sodium salami without a trade-off of the product quality.