Sodium chloride is one of the most widely used additives in meat curing. However, cured meat products contribute to a portion of the total sodium dietary intake. Consumers and researchers’ concern about excessive sodium intake has prompted the food industry to consider ways to reduce salt content of cured meat products. The aim of this review is to provide a broad but comprehensive understanding of salt reduction strategies for cured meat products. The impact and limitations of each approach were discussed. Green technologies treatments, such as ultrasonic technology, high-pressure processing, seem to be potential to ensure microbiological safety in low-sodium cured meat products. However, these novel technologies can cause protein and fat oxidization in meat products. A combination of multiple treatments could give the desired effect. In addition, different parameter conditions need to be set according to the specific meat to achieve better salt reduction effect.

γ-Glutamyl peptides can enhance basic taste sensations such as saltiness, sweetness, and umaminess, while the molecular mechanism and the difference in taste enhancement remain elusive. Thus, two complex conformations: taste type 1 receptor 1 (T1R1)-MSG and taste type 1 receptor 2 (T1R2)-sucrose were constructed to form binding receptors. These peptides showed affinity for the two receptors, but a higher affinity scores and more binding amino acid residues for the T1R1-MSG receptor, implying that they may exhibit a higher umami-enhancing effect. Thereinto, γ-glutamyl alanine (γ-EA) displayed the highest affinity for the two receptors through mobilizing multiple amino acid residues to form hydrophobic and hydrogen bonds, indicating it had the highest enhancement for umaminess and sweetness among these peptides. Sensory evaluation demonstrated the enhancement of γ-EA on umaminess was superior to that of sweetness. Generally, γ-glutamyl peptides could enhance basic taste sensation via activating taste receptor, and exhibited a highest umami-enhancing effect.