Can salt be reduced without affecting pleasantness of foods

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Can salt be reduced without affecting
pleasantness of foods

• Katariina Roininen
• May 29, 2007

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(No Transcript)
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Anatomy of gustation

• In mammals sensory receptor cells are located in
  taste buds
• Taste buds are located in papillae in tongue
  (4600) and throughout the oral cavity (2500)

http//www.cf.ac.uk/biosi/starff/jacop/teaching/se
nsory/taste.html
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Taste transduction of salt taste

• Salt taste
• Sodium Chloride (Na Cl- )
• Na ions enter the receptor cells via Na-channels
• The entry of Na causes deporarization, Ca2
  enters through Ca2-channels causing transmitter
  release and finally increase firing of afferent
  nerve

http//www.cf.ac.uk/biosi/starff/jacop/teaching/se
nsory/taste.html
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Salt perception

• Depends on the matrix

• B detection threshold
• C recognition threshold
• D terminal threshold

water
food
Perceived saltiness

• Detection threshold for salt
• water 0.007
• bread 0.05

A
B
C
D
D
NaCl
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Salt in foods
Preservation
Processability
Flavour
Increases shelf life
Increase pleasantness
Improves texture
Enhance flavours
Water-holding capacity
Effect on gluten deve- lopment
Reduce the perception of other stimuli
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Salt preference
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Salt preference

• It is only partly innate (compared to sweetness
  which is innate )
• Preference develops during fist four months
• Early imprinting
• Experience
• Habit
• Can be changed
• Difficult and takes time
• In the beginning low salt food does not meet
  expectations
• Exposure
• Increased liking of low salt options

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Why salt should be reduced?

• The association between excessive sodium intake
  and the development of hypertension
• Hypertension is major risk factor in the
  development of cardiovascular disease
• Study of Appeal et al. (1997) showed a graded
  linear relation between salt intake and blood
  pressure
• It has been estimated that reducing salt intake
  to 6g a day
• Effect on blood presure, could lead to a 24
  reduction in deaths from strokes and an 18
  reduction in deaths from coronary heart disease,
• The cost of CVD to the EU economy is estimated
  169B (Petersen et al. (2005)

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Salt intake

• Salt intake in Finland in 2002 was about 9.5
  g/day in men and 7 g/day in women
• Recommendation in Finland is 7 g/day for men and
  6 g/day for women
• General recommendations in many EU-countries is
  6g/day
• In Sweden recent study showed that men aged
  between18-20 years had a very high salt intake
  (around 11.7 g/day)
• Physiological need is only 2 g/day
• Intake should be lowered to meet recommendations

Sources of salt, Reinivuo et al. 2006
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Potential approaches for salt reduction
Salt replacers
Stepwise reduction
Salt enhancers
Modification of physical form of salt
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Effects of salt reduction
Cohesiveness of sausage is decreased
Bread will be crumbly
Taste and aroma balance will change

• Effect depends on the food matrix
• Has to take into account

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Salt replacement
Umami Natriumglutamate 5-ribonucleotides
Spices and herbs
Increased acidity
Salt at the top of the product
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Salt replacement

• Mineral salts
• Do not deliver the clean salt taste of sodium
  chloride (NaCl)
• The bitterness associated with potassium chloride
  (KCl) at the concentrations needed for saltiness
  limits the industrial use
• 5050 NaClKCl is blend is common limit
• Ruusunen et al. (2005) suggested in a review that
  the use of mineral salt mixtures is a good way to
  reduce sodium content in meat products
• Gelabert et al. 2003 studied the effect of
  substituting NaCl by KCl, potassium lactate
  (K-lactate) and glycine (0-40) on sensory,
  microbiological and physiochemical
  characteristics of fermented sausages
• The partial substitution (above 40) of NaCl with
  different mixtures of KCl/glycine and
  K-lactate/glycine had important flavour and
  textural defects, therefore level of substitution
  can not increased

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Salt replacement

• Commercial mixtures of NaCl and KCl
• Pansalt
• Almost half of the sodium is removed and replaced
  with potassium chloride (KCl), magnesium sulphate
  (MgSO4) and the essential amino acid L-lysine
  hydrochloride
• Sodium is reduced 43
• Relative saltiness compared to salt (NaCl) is 70
  
• Problem with bitterness of potassium and
  magnesium
• Morton Lite Salt (mixture of NaClKCl in
  relation 6040)
• AlsoSalt (KCl and L-lysine) processed in a way
  that bitterness is reduced
• Adsalt Lo (KCl-NaCl mixture where 13.6 K and
  35Na)
• Sub4salt (Na-glukonateNaClKCl) should give
  25-50 reduce in sodium
• Lo Salt (66,6 KCl and 33.3 NaCl)
• Saxa So-low salt, Nalow

www.pansuola.fi, www.alsosalt.com/potassium1.html,
www.mortonsalt.com/consumer/products/foodsalts/li
tesalt.html, www.losalt.com, www.askadams.co.uk/ne
ws_archive2.html
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Salt replacement

• Spices and herbs
• Marjoram, allspice, onion and monosodium
  glutamate was added to bouillon (Tuorila et al.
  1990)
• No effect of the pleasantness of the low salt
  bouillon
• Bouillon with 1 of salt was the pleasant with or
  without herbs anc spices

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Salt replacement

• Increasing sourness
• Tomato juice (Pangborn Trabue 1967) sourness
  increased perceived saltiness
• Rye bread (Helleman 1991) sourness enhanced
  perceived saltiness clearly

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Salt replacement

• Salt enhancers
• Compounds that do not have themselves a salty
  taste, but enhance a salty taste when used in
  combination with NaCl
• Amino acids (glycine, lysine, taurine and
  aginine), glycine ester and lactates
• Amino acids had no consistent enhancement effect
  in solution or in food
• Glycine ester successfully compensated for salt
  taste in products with a 30 reduction in their
  salt content, although it had a sour note
• Potasium lactate was the most effective salt
  enhancer in solution and in all of the foods
  tested
• It compensated loss in saltiness in products with
  a reduced salt content of up to 30 without
  off-flavour

(Phelps et al. 2006)
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Salt replacement

• Umami
• Taste comes from glutamate
• Naturally lot of in mushrooms, tomato and soy
  sauce
• Monosodium glutamate (flavour enhancer) and
  5ribonukleotides (Ionosine monophosphate, IMP
  and guanosine monophosphate, GMP) can be used for
  forming umami taste or Monosodium glutamate and
  yeast extract
• When added in suitable foods (meat fish, seafood,
  vegetable foods and mixed products of these raw
  materials) has considerable impact on their
  sensory and hedonic properties
• Resulting increased richness, savouriness,
  saltiness and palatability

Barylko-Pikielna and Kostyra (2007) Roininen et
al. 1996 Yamaguchi, 1998
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Salt replacement

• Umami
• 0.3 and 0.5 amount of salt in lentil, mushroom,
  leak-potato and minestrone soups
• Eight weeks of repeated testing
• Low- and high-salt preference respondents
• The pleasantness, taste intensity and ideal
  saltiness rating of soups were higher in soups
  with umami in both preference groups
• Soups without umami pleasantness decreased during
  repeated testing while soups with umami it
  remained unchanged
• Sodium was reduced 40

(Roininen et al. 1996)
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Salt replacement

• Salt at the top of the product
• Crackers, mashed potato and an omelet was
  perceived saltier when the product was salted
  only from surface compared to the conventional
  way of salting (Mattes 1987)
• Liver pate was perceived saltier when salted from
  the surface (Shepherd et al 1989)
• Physical modification of physical for of salt
• Salt was prepared with small crystal sizes and
  blended with varying concentrations of potassium
  chloride
• Smaller crystal size was associated with faster
  salt perception (Phelps et al. 2006)

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Can salt be reduced without affecting the
pleasantness

• Yes, for certain limits
• Mineral salts and umami
• Maybe in the future bitterness of mineral salts
  can be better suppressed

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Thank you for your attention!
More information katariina.roininen_at_vtt.fi