Progress in Processing Technologies for Low-Salt Dry-Cured Meat Products and Understanding Their Principles

Dry-cured meat products are loved by consumers because of their unique flavor, but the high salt content in dry-cured meat products restricts their further development. As people have started to pay attention to a moderately low-sodium diet, how to achieve the goal of reducing salt content in meat products while ensuring product quality and safety has become a hot issue in this field. This article begins with an analysis of the relationship between the sodium salt content and quality of dry-cured meat products. Next, it focuses on the current processing technologies and strategies for low-salt dry-cured meat products, namely sodium salt substitution, new curing technologies based on vacuum, ultra-high pressure, ultrasonic or pulse electric field, and saltiness perception enhancement technologies. Moreover, the principles of the different salt reduction technologies, the mechanism of salty taste perception, and the impact of salt reduction on the quality of dry-cured meat products are analyzed, and the limitations of the existing studies and technologies are put forward. We hope that this review will provide some theoretical references for the development of low-salt dry-cured meat products.