Development and Characterization of Clean-Label Hybrid Deli Ham with Pulse Flours as Partial Meat Replacers

Growing interest in sustainable and clean-label foods has increased the need for meat products with reduced animal meat content. This study comparatively characterized three deli ham formulations: a conventional control, a hybrid formulation in which 50% of the pork meat mass was replaced with chickpea flour, red lentil flour and potato protein isolate, and a clean-label hybrid formulation with the same meat replacement. For physicochemical, nutritional, texture and rheological analyses, one production batch was prepared for each formulation. A second, independently produced batch of each formulation was prepared for the sensory evaluation. The hybrid formulations showed lower moisture (48%) and in vitro protein digestibility (66%) than the control (78% and 87.4%, respectively) although all samples exhibited predominantly elastic behaviour. Mineral content and in vitro bioaccessibility varied according to the mineral and formulation. From a nitrogen footprint perspective, the hybrid formulations exhibited lower estimated nitrogen footprint values than the control under the assumptions and system boundaries applied in the model. Overall, sensory responses differed among formulations for several evaluated attributes, indicating differences in sensory acceptance across formulations. These findings show that partial replacement of pork meat modified the physicochemical, nutritional, technological and sensory characteristics of deli ham, while providing a potential approach for reducing the modelled nitrogen footprint of the product.