Mass transfer and physicochemical characteristics of turkey neck meat during dry salting

Abstract

The turkey neck is a cut with a higher proportion of meat when compared to the neck of other poultry, abundant in red fibers and is little valued by the food industry. It is possible to add value to this by-product through dry salting, an inexpensive and suitable method for the production of dried meat products, such as charqui. Turkey neck meat was submitted to the dry salting under different temperatures for study their salt gain and water loss on the flat plate geometry, using derived equations of Fick's Law, beyond the influence of the process in the physicochemical characteristics. The highest water loss (33.99%) occurred at 10 °C, while the highest salt gain (9.47%) was observed at 15 °C. The empirical model presented a good fit to the experimental data. Apparent diffusivities were between 1.02 x 10^-10 m²/s and 1.18 x 10^-10 m²/s. The dry salting promoted small decrease in pH, the darkening of the meat, while shear force increased. After the process, water activity (aw) was 0.74 and 0.79, moisture between 40.14% and 45.97%, and ash residue (12.30% - 14.03%), which characterizes a salt product with similar characteristics of charqui meat. It is possible to estimate the desirable amount of salt, producing a stable food product with a high conservation potential and a wide range of applications for derived salty products.