Sodium chloride determination in meat products: Comparison of the official titration-based method with atomic absorption spectrometry
Trinidad Pérez‐Palacios, A. Salas, Adela Muñoz, Eder-Renato Ocaña, Teresa Antequera
Abstract
The objective of this study was to compare the efficacy of the official chloride method (OM) and the atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS) technique to determine the salt/sodium content in different meat products with and without nutritional claims related to salt/sodium. Model meat systems with NaCl (2 %) and NaCl (1 %) + KCl (1 %) and commercial meat products, with and without nutritional claims, were analysed. Greater accuracy was found with AAS relative to OM in determining the percentage of salt in samples with added NaCl + KCl (1.66 % vs 0.91 % and 1.47 % vs 0.89 % for the model systems of burger meat and cooked sausage, respectively). However, there was poor correlation in the percentages of salt given by AAS, OM, and the nutritional composition or ingredient labeling, while the sodium and potassium concentrations determined by AAS agreed with the label information. Thus, the quantity of sodium, and even of potassium, should be shown on meat product labels, which should carefully specify the ingredients. The AAS method showed good performance (recovery 96.0 % and 99.2 %, precision 2.2 % and 1.3 %, linearity >0.997, limit of detection 0.004 and 0.002, limit of quantification 0.04 and 0.02, respectively for sodium and potassium).