Healthy Trends Affect the Quality of Traditional Meat Products in Mediterranean Area

1 Instituto de Agroquímica y Tecnología de Alimentos (IATA-CSIC), Avda Agustín Escardino 7, 46980 Paterna, Valencia, Spain; e-mail: [email protected] 2 Same address ABSTRACT The actual trend in the meat industry is the development of healthy meat products with reduced fat and salt contents. In high quality products such as traditional sausages which are characterized by an absence of fermentation and long ripening times, it is essential to get a meat product with a high aroma quality but at the same time healthy composition. This reduction represents an added value to the production and consumption of traditional sausages because flavour is one of the most important characteristics for consumers. The problem associated to salt and fat reduction in dry sausages is the loss in sensory properties, especially in aroma. The reason is that sodium has a synergetic effect with the food matrix, enhances the sensory characteristics and produces the release of volatile aroma compounds from the food matrix. On the other hand, fat affects the generation of volatile compounds from which it is a precursor and modifies flavour perception due to the changes in the interaction and release of volatile compounds. Few references have studied the effect of salt and fat reduction in the aroma of traditional dry cured sausages. This manuscript summarized the effect of salt and fat reduction in flavour development of traditional sausages and its effect on aroma perception. Traditional foods should be adapted to new trends without losing their identity and sensory characteristics.