Influence of brine concentration on swelling pressure of pork meat throughout salting

The influence of sodium chloride on the water holding capacity of meat is well known and described in literature. An increase in water holding capacity is associated with an increase in the swelling pressure in the protein matrix. A novel device was used to measure the swelling pressure during brine salting of muscle cylinders (40x50 mm), in different NaCl brine concentrations (2.5 to 25%) over 6 days at 4 degrees C. Changes in meat composition, weight and height of non-constrained control samples were also measured. The aim of this work was to prove the feasibility of using the developed device in order to quantify the influence of the brine concentration on the magnitude of the swelling pressure. The obtained results indicated the adequacy of the developed device for measuring the meat swelling, while a good correlation of the swelling pressure and the changes in weight and height of the samples was observed. (C) 2010 The American Meat Science Association. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.