Rehydration kinetics at 5 and 15 °C of dry salted meat Original Research Article

The surface of meat products during intermittent drying is successively subjected to dehydration and rehydration processes. The aim of this paper was to study the rehydration kinetics at two temperatures (5 and 15 °C) of salted ground pork, (2% or 4% NaCl) dried to different water contents, (10%, 20% and 35%) using Peleg and Weibull’s models. Surface structure of dried samples was analyzed with electron microscopy and related to rehydration kinetics. The equilibrium water content decreased with temperature and increased with NaCl, but was not affected by the initial water content. The rehydration rate at the beginning decreased with water content and was significantly higher at 5 °C than at 15 °C, but it was not significantly affected by NaCl content. However, the equilibrium water decreased with temperature and tended to increase with NaCl content, but was not affected by the initial water content. High level of dehydration resulted in a more damaged and porous meat matrix. This microstructure may contribute to accelerating the rehydration process.