Effects of Salt Levels in Prerigor Blends and Cooked Sausages on Water Binding, Released Fat and pH

Prerigor pork was used to make preblends of 0, 1, 2, 3 or 4% salt and 125 ppm sodium nitrite. Sausages formulated with 1.5 or 2.0% salt were made from all preblends; sausages formulated with 1.0% salt were made from preblends of 0, 1, 2 and 3% salt. Sausages made with nonsalted preblends had less water binding capacity (WBC) and more released fat (RF) than sausages made with preblends of 2, 3, or 4% salt (P < 0.05). Levels of salt in preblends did not affect (P > 0.05) WBC when salt contents of sausages were reduced from 2.0 to 1.5%; however, these WBC values were lowered somewhat when preblends with 0 or 1.0% salt were used. Water binding capacity decreased (P < 0.05) when salt contents of sausages were reduced from 1.5 to 1.0%, and when these sausages were made with preblends containing 2.0 or 3.0% salt. Data suggest that salting of prerigor pork is beneficial for optimizing WBC in sausages made with low salt contents.