Acta Vet. Brno 2024, 93: 461-466
Actual salt content in salted minced pork and beef as determined by AAS and NIR methods
The aim of this article was to evaluate the amount of salt dosed in various proportions into minced pork and beef. Determination of salt was conducted by the atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS) method and, for comparison, by the near infrared spectroscopy (NIR) method. The meat (beef neck and pork topside) was ground through a plate with a hole size of 8 mm. Salt doses were from 0 to 2.0%, at intervals of 0.2%. Each sort of meat was divided into two parts of 350 g: 1) with initial grinding (coarse grinding), and 2) with subsequent grinding through a plate with a hole size of 3 mm (fine grinding). The salt content in fresh pork meat (0% salt) ranged between 0.13 and 0.16%, whereas the content in beef ranged from 0.14 to 0.19% (as analysed by the AAS method). The proportion of added salt had a statistically significant effect on the salt content in meat. No significant differences were found between coarse and fine grinding and between pork and beef meat. The predicted natural salt content in meat was 0.15 and 0.19% for pork, and 0.20 and 0.21% for beef. The proportion of analysed salt was then determined as 0.99–1.06 times the dosed salt. The authors do not recommend the use of the NIR method, which provides reliable results for the main chemical components of meat, i.e. protein and fat, for the determination of the proportions of salt in meat.
Keywords
Beef, pork, sodium determination, AAS, NIR.
Funding
Financial support was provided to this experiment by the project of Internal Creative Agency VETUNI No. 2022ITA24.
