The influence of temperature modes during salting and resting stages on the mass transfer in dry-cured ham.

Mass transfer in pork meat pieces was studied at temperatures of 0, 2 and 6°C during the salting and the resting stages, followed by the drying at 2°C, 80 % RH. The influence of the different salting temperatures on the moisture losses was investigated. The salting and the drying processes of meat were described by a semi-empirical model using the Fick’s law of diffusion. The effective moisture diffusion for the salting process was between 0.8 10-9 and 2.0 10-9 m2 s-1, while for the drying stage the value was 2.5 10-10 m2 s-1. It was found no significant influence of the salting temperatures in the range between 0°C and 6°C on the osmotic dehydration process or on the drying kinetics of the salted meat. The research on the impact of salting temperature modes on water activity reduction was also carried out.