Chloride Salt Diffusion in Wet Salting Pork with NaCl-Substitute Salts

This study investigated the diffusion kinetics of sodium chloride (NaCl), magnesium chloride (MgCl₂), potassium chloride (KCl), and calcium chloride (CaCl₂) during wet salting of pork samples up to equilibrium conditions. Pork rump steaks were submitted to wet salting in saturated solutions of NaCl, KCl, MgCl₂, and CaCl₂ at 1, 5, 10, and 15 °C. The empirical Peleg and Weibull models, as well as a diffusion model, were used to describe the evolution of water content (WC) and salt content (SC) throughout the process. Increasing temperature decreased WC and increased SC, as well as the diffusion coefficients of water and salts in pork samples. The Weibull model provided accurate predictions of WC and SC up to equilibrium conditions. Among the evaluated salts, faster mass transfer rates and higher diffusion coefficients were observed for KCl. In addition, CaCl₂ and MgCl₂ resulted in higher equilibrium salt content compared to NaCl and KCl, which may be attributed to their higher ionic strength and stronger interactions with muscle proteins. These findings provide useful insights for optimizing wet salting processes using alternative salts for sodium reduction. The results of this study may serve as a basis for estimating salting time when using KCl solutions, particularly under similar processing conditions.