Journal of Food Engineering 149 (2015) 188194

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Journal of Food Engineering

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jfoodeng

Effect of temperature on nitrite and water diffusion in pork meat

J. Gmez a, N. Sanjun b, J. Bon b, J. Arnau c, G. Clemente b,
a

Universidad De La Salle Bajo, Avenida Universidad 602, Lomas del Campestre, 37150 Len de los Aldama, Guanajuato, Mexico
Food Technology Department, Universitat Politcnica de Valncia, C/ Cam de Vera s/n, 46022 Valncia, Spain
c
Institut de Recerca i Tecnologia Agroalimentries (IRTA), Food Technology Center, Finca Camps i Armet, 17121 Monells, Girona, Spain
b

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 24 January 2014
Received in revised form 20 September
2014
Accepted 5 October 2014
Available online 14 October 2014
Keywords:
Nitrite
Water
Meat
Temperature
Diffusion
Modelling

a b s t r a c t
Nitrites are important food additives. The nitrite movement in meat is assumed to occur by means of a diffusion process. The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of temperature on nitrite and water
diffusion mechanisms in meat samples during the curing of pork meat. For this purpose, cylinders of Semimembranosus muscle were salted with sodium nitrite (NaNO2) at 2 C, 7 C and 12 C. Experimental curing
and water loss kinetics were modelled by means of a diffusion model. As the curing time lengthened, the
water content fell and the nitrite content increased. The values for the nitrite and water diffusion were
estimated to be in the range of 4.58  10121.02  1012 m2/s and 5.96  1099.82  109 m2/s respectively, and they increased as the temperature went up. The activation energy was 32.24 kJ/mol for water
diffusion and 60.32 kJ/mol for nitrite diffusion.
2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Meat products are preserved by means of different methods,
salting and curing being one of the most commonly used. Sodium
chloride (NaCl) is an ingredient which, among other things,
enhances the avour and decreases the water activity of the product. Nitrite is an additive giving the cured products their characteristic red colour and avour (Flores and Toldr, 1993). Nitrite,
together with sodium chloride, inhibits the production of the
neurotoxin produced by Clostridium botulinum, thus preventing
food poisoning and botulism. Although the positive effect of
nitrites on meat has been agged, this curing agent involves the
potential formation of nitrosamines through the reaction with secondary amines, which are compounds with teratogenic, mutagenic
and carcinogenic effects (Cassens, 1997). Previously, Bogovski and
Bogovski (1981) investigated the risk of cancer induced by the
nitrouscompounds in animal species, concluding that these substances are potent carcinogens.
In the last few years, there have been proposals put forward to
control and reduce the maximum authorized amount of nitrites
permitted in meat products. In the EU, potassium and sodium
nitrite and nitrate are authorized for use in different meat products
(Commission Regulation (EC) No 1129/2011). Maximum added or
residual amounts are established depending on the meat product
Corresponding author. Tel.: +34 96 387 91 48; fax: +34 96 387 98 39.
E-mail address: gclemen@tal.upv.es (G. Clemente).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jfoodeng.2014.10.008
0260-8774/ 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

(Directive 2006/52/CE). When the maximum amount of added

nitrite is regulated it should not exceed 150 mg/kg, however, in
some products nitrite is added by rubbing on the surface manually
or in a tumbler (e.g. dry-cured ham maximum residual 100 mg/kg
or dry-cured bacon 175 mg/kg) or brine-cured (Wiltshire bacon
and toucinho maximum residual 175 mg/kg). Thus, it means
that nitrite is at very high concentrations on the surface until
equalization.
Since it is difcult to control the level of endogenous factors,
such as amino acids and amines, it would be necessary to evaluate
the effect of the reduction in the nitrite added to products and to
gain greater knowledge of the reaction and process conditions
while preserving the product safety. For this reason, it is essential
to control the curing process, i.e. the amount of nitrites, the curing
time and the main factors governing nitrite penetration into meat.
The transfer mechanism of both nitrite ion and sodium through the
meat structure is an interesting aspect in meat processing technology. The transport phenomenon in the meat brining operation,
dened by the transfer of salts and water, is complicated and
depends on aspects such as salt concentration, temperature, pH
and meat bre direction (Barat et al., 2011; Boudhrioua et al.,
2009; Gravier et al., 2006, 2009).
One of the best ways to learn about the factors governing this
process is by using mathematical models, which may represent
the process, explain the observed data and predict the behaviour
under different conditions (Mulet, 1994). Diffusion models are usually applied to describe mass transfer in food. Diffusion is the most

J. Gmez et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 149 (2015) 188194

189

Nomenclature
C
Ce
Cs
C0
Cse
Cs0
Cw
Cwe
Cw0
De
DNe

concentration of nitrite or water (kg/m3)

equilibrium concentration of nitrite or water (kg/m3)
average nitrite concentration (kg/m3)
initial concentration of nitrite or water (kg/m3)
average equilibrium nitrite concentration (kg/m3)
average initial nitrite concentration (kg/m3)
average moisture content (kg water/kg dry matter)
average equilibrium moisture content (kg water/kg dry
matter)
average initial moisture content (kg water/kg dry
matter)
effective diffusivity of nitrite or water (m2/s)
effective diffusivity of nitrite (m2/s)

important mass transfer mechanism during salting (Barat et al.,

2003; Wang et al., 2000). Effective diffusivity, which includes the
effect of known hypotheses and unknown phenomena which are
not included in the model, can be calculated by means of diffusion
models. When modelling, this parameter can be considered constant (e.g. Gou et al., 2003; Gravier et al., 2006) or dependent on
some process or product conditions. For example, Gravier et al.
(2009) in a study on pork meat salting with a mixture of NaNO2,
KNO3, and NaCl considered that the effective diffusion coefcient
depended on NaCl concentration.
The diffusivity is a parameter to consider in the curing process
since it affects the water content and, in turn, the salt penetration
into the meat. It is signicantly affected by operating temperatures. An increase in temperature raises the thermal energy of molecules, resulting in an increase in the diffusion rate of the
molecules (Gou et al., 2003; Pinotti et al., 2002). Thus, the dependence of diffusivity on temperature is generally described by the
Arrhenius equation.
The diffusion of sodium chloride (NaCl) and the inuence of its
concentration on the diffusivity of a mixture of salts (NaCl, NaNO2
and KNO3) in pork, beef and sh has been studied by different
researchers (Graiver et al., 2006; Sabadini et al., 1998; Siro et al.,
2009; Wang et al., 2000). Likewise, studies have been performed
on the kinetics of the diffusion of sodium chloride during chicken
meat curing (Volpato et al., 2007). Other studies show the inuence of curing salts on the macro and microstructure of the treated
product: for example pork meat immersed in NaCl brines of different concentrations (Graiver et al., 2005, 2009) or pork meat salted
by immersion in brines of different compositions (NaNO2, KNO3
and NaCl) (Pinotti et al., 2000). Nevertheless, neither has the diffusive behaviour of sodium nitrite inside the meat been published,
nor the effect of the curing temperature on the diffusion of this salt.
On the other hand, due to the increase of the interest about reducing NaCl in meat products (Stollewerk et al., 2012), it is important
to know the behaviour of isolated salts in the curing process, for
better understanding the diffusion process of a mixture of salts.
Therefore, for the purposes of contributing to an improvement in
ham processing, the objective of this research was to study the
effect of temperature on the diffusion kinetics of sodium nitrite
and water in the Semimembranosus muscle of pork leg.

DN0
Dw0
Dwe
ENa
Ewa
L
R
R2
T
t
x

pre-exponential factor in equation 11 (m2/s)

pre-exponential factor in equation 12 (m2/s)
effective diffusivity of water (m2/s)
activation energy for nitrite (kJ/mol)
activation energy for water (kJ/mol)
length of the cylinder (m)
ideal gas constant (8.31 J/mol K)
explained variance
temperature (K)
time (s)
cartesian coordinate (m)

slaughterhouse. All the pork legs came from different animals

obtained at a commercial slaughterhouse the day before the curing
process began. The legs were packed in plastic lm and stored at
2 1 C for between 13 and 14 h before separating the Semimembranosus muscle (SM). The SM muscle was separated from each leg
and fourteen cylinders, 8.4 cm in height and 2.4 cm in diameter
were obtained from each muscle, keeping the orientation of the
meat bres parallel to the cylinder axis (Fig. 1). Thirteen of the
fourteen cylinders obtained from each muscle were used for curing
with sodium nitrite (NaNO2) and the remaining cylinder was used
to characterize the initial conditions of the meat.
2.2. Experimental conditions
The cylinders were weighed and their side faces were subsequently covered with a PVC lm to prevent moisture loss. Each cylinder was hung from one of its bases and the other one was in
contact with a brine saturated with sodium nitrite (NaNO2). The
brine was prepared with an excess of NaNO2 in order to compensate the amount absorbed by the meat. The saturated brine and
the cylinders were placed randomly into curing chambers at 2, 7
and 12 C (thirteen cylinders per chamber) with 95 1.5 % relative
humidity.
In order to control the temperature, the curing chambers were
placed inside a chamber with controlled temperature and relative
humidity. Inside the curing chambers, the relative humidity was
maintained at around 95% by means of a saturated brine of
KNO3. The measurement of temperature and relative humidity

2. Materials and methods

2.1. Raw material
Six pork legs, with an average weight of 9.6 1.2 kg and a
pH45 > 6.0 and pH24 of 5.9 0.1, were selected from a local

Fig. 1. Meat bre orientation in the samples from the Semimembranosus muscle.

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J. Gmez et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 149 (2015) 188194

inside the curing chambers was carried out by TFG80Exi sensors

(Gall Tech Mess und Regeltechnik GmbH, Bondorf, Alemania).
These parameters were monitored and controlled by means of software developed in LabView (National Instruments, USA). In order
to avoid air stratication, a fan was installed inside each curing
chamber.
The curing process lasted 21 days to obtain enough experimental points for modelling. The cylinders obtained from two of the
muscles were used at each experimental temperature. At regular
intervals, every 12 h during the rst two days of curing, and every
24 and 48 h after the third day, a cylinder was taken out from the
chamber, weighed and cut into four slices (A, B, C and D), 2.4 cm in
diameter and 2.1 cm in length, perpendicular to the cylinder axis
(Fig. 2). The nitrite content of each slice was determined.
The curing experiments were carried out in duplicate.
2.3. Analytical techniques
2.3.1. pH determination
The pH was measured using a Mattus model pH-STAR CPU lab
pH-meter (Ptmes, Germany).
2.3.2. Water content
The initial water content was determined by drying the samples
until constant weight at 103 2 C (AOAC, 1997). The evolution of
the water content of each cylinder over time was determined
through weight difference, based on the initial moisture content.
2.3.3. Nitrite determination
The procedure for nitrite determination was performed from
the modication of the AOAC methodology (AOAC, 2000). This
method is based on the colorimetric reaction between the nitrite
in the sample and the reagents sulphanilamide and N-(1-naphthyl)
ethylenediamine dihydrochloride (NED), which produce an azodyaminethat is detected spectrophotometrically at 520540 nm
(Ruiz-Capillas et al., 2007). To determine the quantity of nitrites,
5 g of meat tissue which had previously been triturated in Minimixer equipment (Ufesa BP4530) and 200 ml of water from a MilliQ plus system (Millipore, Billerica, MA, USA) were placed in a
300 ml volumetric ask. The ask containing the mixture was
put into a bath at 100 C and heated for 10 min. The suspension
was homogenized for 10 min at 9000 rpm using an Ultra-turrax
T25 (IKA Labortechnik, Janke & Kunkel GMBH & Co, Staufen,
Germany), maintaining the temperature of the bath constant.
Afterwards, the homogenate was diluted with water and ltered

(Waterman #1) to obtain the meat extracts. From the nal solution, 10 ml were taken and mixed with the reagents, sulphanilamide and N-(1-naphthyl) ethylenediamine dihydrochloride
(NED). After reacting for 15 min, the nitrite concentration was
measured at 540 nm using a Helios Gamma + spectrophotometer
(Thermo Spectronic, Cambridge, UK). At least 4 replications were
carried out for each measurement.
The method was validated by injecting a known amount of
NaNO2 into small pieces of meat, and comparing those quantities
with the values obtained following the extraction and determination procedure described above. The method was successfully validated; R2 was 0.99.
2.4. Modelling
The mass transport of a solute from the surface towards the
centre of the food tissue is affected both by the nature of the food
tissues and the different parameters that affect the diffusion. In
this research, the modelling of the mass transfer during the meat
curing was based on the analytical solution of Ficks second law
of diffusion. Specically, the penetration of nitrite and the outow
of water during the process were modelled.
In developing the model, the following assumptions were
made: one-dimensional transport parallel to direction of the meat
bre (semi-innite slab geometry), negligible external resistance
to mass transfer, homogeneous and isotropic meat, constant effective diffusivity and constant dimensions of the samples throughout
the experiment. With these considerations, the governing equation, Eq. (1), the initial condition, Eq. (2), and the boundary conditions, Eqs. (3) and (4), were formulated:

"
#
@Cx; t
@ 2 Cx; t
De
@t
@x2
Cx; 0 C 0
@C
x 0 0
@t
CL C e

Slice C

L/4

L/2
3L/4
L

L
p
2n 1 ;
4
8

C s0  C se

2 4

Fig. 2. Sections into which the meat cylinders were divided to analyse nitrite
content.



L
2
eDNe kn t sen kn
4
n0 knL
2

1
X
1n

eDNe kn
2

2t





L
L
 sen kn
7
sen kn
2
4
C s0  C se
n0 knL
 



1
C s3LL;t  C se
X
1n DNe kn2 t
3L
L
4 2

sen
kn
8
8
e
sen
kn
2
4
2
C s0  C se
n0 knL



1
C sL3L;t  C se
X
1n DNe kn2 t
3L
4
9
8
e
senknL

sen
kn
2
4
C s0  C se
n0 knL
C sLL;t  C se

Saturated brine

n 0; 1; 2 . . .

1
X
1n

Slice A

Diffusion of nitrite (parallel to meat fibre)

The average nitrite content for each slice at a given time t, C s ,

was calculated by integrating Eq. (5) between 0 and L/4 (Eq. (6))
for slice D, L/4 and L/2 (Eq. (7)) for slice C, L/2 and 3L/4 (Eq. (8))
for slice B, and 3L/4 and L (Eq. (9)) for slice A (Fig. 2).

C s0L;t  C se

Slice B

1
X
Cx; t  C e
1n De kn2 t
2
cosknx
e
C0  Ce
knL
n0

where kn
Slice D

By considering the above conditions and solving the governing

equation (Eq. (1)), a function was obtained which permits the calculation of the local concentration of nitrite or water in the whole
sample, Eq. (5):

Sample
Film PVC

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J. Gmez et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 149 (2015) 188194

1
X
C w 0  L; t  C we
1n Dwe kn2 t
2
e
2
C w0  C we
n0 knL

10

The equilibrium moisture content of the samples under the

experimental conditions was calculated using Pelegs model
(Peleg, 1988).
To estimate the effective diffusivity, an optimization problem
was formulated. The SOLVER tool of EXCEL (Microsoft Excel)
was applied to solve the optimization problem, which uses a
non-linear optimization method Generalized Reduced Gradient.
DNe and Dwe values were calculated by minimizing the mean of
the squared differences between the experimental and calculated
concentrations using the model.
The goodness of t was evaluated by means of the explained
variance, and the graphical representation of the calculated vs
experimental results.
2.5. Temperature effect on effective diffusivity
The Arrhenius equation was applied for nitrite, Eq. (11), and
water, Eq. (12), in order to analyse the inuence of the process
temperature on the diffusion coefcients.



ENa
DNe DN0 exp 
RT


Ewa
Dwe Dw0 exp 
RT

11
12

3. Results and discussion

The main components transferred between the meat and the
saturated brine during the curing process were sodium nitrite
and water. Sodium nitrite was transferred from the brine into the
meat, while water owed out from the meat and it was transferred
into the surrounding brine.
3.1. Water content
The initial water content of the cylinders was 73% on wet basis.
The water content of meat is an important factor to take into
account, because nitrite, due to its high solubility, is mobilized into
the meat in the aqueous phase (Honikel, 2008).
Fig. 3 shows the evolution of the experimental average moisture
content of the whole cylinder samples during the curing process at
different temperatures. As can be observed, the longer the curing
time, the lower the moisture content. During the rst 5 days of curing, a rapid drop in the water content was observed at the three
experimental temperatures (2, 7 and 12 C), which then decreased
and tended towards the equilibrium value (1.4 kg water/kg dry
matter at 2 C and 0.89 and 0.75 kg water/kg dry matter at 7 and
12 C, respectively). These results are typical of meat salting and
curing, where the decrease in water content is faster during the
early days of the process due to osmotic dehydration (Barat
et al., 2011; Grau et al., 2008). The drop in moisture content was
faster during the entire curing process for the samples salted at
12 and 7 C than for those salted at 2 C.

3.0
T2C

2.7

water content (kg water/kg dry maer)

The equilibrium concentration of nitrites was considered as the

maximum nitrite concentration of a cylinder during long-time
immersion in the saturated brine. It was experimentally determined by leaving a cylinder in contact with the saturated brine
until the equilibrium concentration was achieved. The time needed
for that was determined in preliminary experiments as 30 days.
The average moisture content C w in the sample at a given time
t, was calculated by integrating Eq. (5) for the whole volume of the
sample, Eq. (10):

T2C
2.4

T7C

2.1

T7C
T12C

1.8

T12C
model

1.5
1.2
0.9
0.6
0.3
0.0

10

15

20

25

sang me (days)

Fig. 3. Kinetics of water loss in cylindrical samples during salting and t of model to
experimental data.

3.2. Nitrite content

The results for the nitrite gain in both replications are shown in
Fig. 4. As can be observed, the nitrite concentration was inuenced
by salting time and position. Slice A (closest to the brine) showed a
tendency to reach maximum concentration at the three experimental temperatures. Slice B also presented an increase in nitrite
content, although it reached a lower concentration than slice A.
As expected, the lowest nitrite concentration was that of slices C
and D, which were the furthest from the brine. In the slice closest
to the brine (A), the nitrite concentration increased rapidly during
the rst 5 days of salting at 2 C, while at 7 C and 12 C this
increase was observed around the ninth day of salting. The high
water content at 2 C (Fig. 3) favours a faster penetration of nitrite
into meat samples. The difference between the nitrite concentration in the different sections of the samples was more evident at
the end of the salting period. After 21 days of salting, the nitrite
content for slice A was close to 1720.5, 2287.45, and 2834.9 mg/L
at 2 C, 7 C and 12 C, respectively. In comparison, the nitrite content in slice D after 21 days was 37.3, 51.9 and 135.3 mg/L at 2 C,
7 C and 12 C, respectively, which is more than 20 times lower.
During the rst days of salting, there was a steep concentration
gradient between the meat and the brine, leading to a fast penetration of nitrite into slice A, while for the other slices it occurred at
slower rates. The same behaviour was observed by other authors
when salting with sodium chloride, such as Grau et al. (2008)
studying the salting of fresh and thawed Iberian hams, Telis et al.
(2003) working on salt diffusion in farmed pantanal caiman muscle
and Wang et al. (2000) analysing the salting of farmed Atlantic
salmon.
When analysing these results and how they relate with the
temperature, it can be observed that the nitrite content values in
every slice were higher at 12 C than at 7 C and 2 C. This temperature effect was more evident for slice A, due to its high nitrite content. The temperature increase, together with a rapid nitrite
saturation on the surface of the meat sample in contact with the
saturated brine (section A), causes a decrease in the water content
thereof. This decrease could hinder the nitrite mobility in the meat,
leading to a lower nitrite concentration in the successive sections
of the cylinder, especially in the one farthest from the brine (section D).
In order to study the effect of temperature on the average nitrite
content of all the samples, the experimental average nitrite content
of the samples was plotted versus time (Fig. 5). As can be observed
in Fig. 5, there was no observed effect of salting temperature on the

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J. Gmez et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 149 (2015) 188194

NO2- content (mg/L)

NO2- content (mg/L)

2500

(1)

1200
1000
800
600
400
200
0

10

15

20

(2)

2000

1500

1000

500

25

salng me (days)

3500

10

15

20

25

salng me (days)

(3)

NO2- content (mg/L)

3000
2500
2000
1500
1000
500
0

10

15

20

25

salng me (days)

Fig. 4. Kinetics of nitrite gain of the samples during the salting process at: (1) 2 C, (2) 7 C and (3) 12 C.  slice A, h d slice B, D + slice C and ; slice D.

1400

3.3. Mathematical modelling

NO2- content (mg/L)

1200
1000
800
600
400
200
0
0

10

15

20

25

salng me (days)

Fig. 5. Average experimental nitrite content of samples versus salting time.

nitrite content during the rst 4 days. According to Fig. 4, samples

presented a high water content during the same salting period,
favouring the ow of nitrite in the aqueous medium of the meat.
During this period, the nitrite diffusion was mainly inuenced by
the water content in the sample and the concentration gradient
between the sample and the brine. After the fth day, the nitrite
diffusion appeared to be inuenced by temperature, and the average nitrite content increased as the curing temperature went up.
Boudhrioua et al. observed that temperature had a similar effect
on salting kinetics (2009). The combined effect of temperature
and high salt concentration induces the movement of water from
the samples towards the surrounding medium. Likewise, this effect
causes an opposite movement: the nitrite gain from the surrounding medium towards the samples, until equilibrium concentration
is reached.

Table1 shows the average values of the effective diffusivity of

nitrite and water in cylinders of Semimembranosus muscle at the
studied temperatures. The values obtained for the diffusion coefcient of water were comparable to those obtained by other authors,
such as Ruiz-Cabrera et al. (2004) when analysing the drying of
Semimembranosus muscle in pork (3.45  10112.45  109 m2/s)
and Boudhrioua et al. (2009) when studying the diffusion of
sodium chloride in sardine llets (2.43  10101.9  108 m2/s).
As regards the values of the diffusion coefcient of nitrite, these
were comparable to those obtained by Barat et al. (2011) for NaCl
and KCl in pork meat brining. The authors obtained values for the
diffusion coefcient of these salts of between 4.98  1012 and
2.48  109 m2/s by tting a diffusion model to experimental salting
kinetics and assuming diffusion to be time-dependent. However, in
the same study, when the authors included other aspects, such as
equilibrium conditions and the determination of the salt concentrations in the liquid phase of the meat in the model, the diffusion
coefcients were higher than those obtained in this study, with values of between 1.12  108 and 5.33  1010 m2/s.

Table 1
Values of the effective diffusivity of NO
2 and water in Semimembranosus muscle
parallel to meat bres at different temperatures. Different letters in the same column
indicate signicant differences (p < 0.05).
Temperature (C)
2
7
12

DNe (m2/s) 1010

a

0.04
0.07b
0.11c

% var.

Dwe (m2/s) 1010

% var.

90.7
94.8
94.8

59.40A
90.60B
97.73C

95.8
98.4
95.2

J. Gmez et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 149 (2015) 188194

Similarly, the values of the diffusion coefcient of nitrite were

lower than those obtained by other authors, such as Pinotti et al.
(2002) when studying the diffusion of nitrite in Longissimus dorsi
muscle (3.8  10109.5  1010 m2/s) and Graiver et al. (2006)
when working on the diffusion of sodium chloride in pork meat
(0.6  10105.0  1010 m2/s). Low values of the diffusion coefcient of nitrite may be related to a decrease in the water content
of the sample (Fig. 3), because the nitrites are mobilized into the
meat in the aqueous phase, and a low water content hinders their
mobility in the meat.
As shown in Fig. 3, a good t was obtained between the experimental and calculated data for the water content. This result was
conrmed by the percentage of explained variance, which was
higher than 95% for every experiment.
In Fig. 5 the experimental and calculated nitrite mean content is
represented. A good agreement between experimental and calculated values for nitrite gain is shown, being the correlation coefcient higher than 0.90 for all the temperatures. Fig. 6 shows the
calculated nitrite content versus the experimental values for the
four slices (A, B, C and D) at the three temperatures considered,
where a correlation coefcient of 0.94 is achieved, which is an adequate correlation between both values. Furthermore, the percentage of explained variance (% var) was over 90% (Table 1).

193

Fig. 7. Ln (De) versus 1/T for samples during salting.  Nitrite uptake and j water
loss.

As can be observed, the activation energy for water is lower

than the one for nitrite. According to these results, nitrites need
more energy than water to be mobilized into the meat. This is also
conrmed by the high values of the diffusion coefcient of water
and the low values of the diffusion coefcient of nitrite mentioned
above.
4. Conclusions

3.4. Temperature effect on diffusion coefcients

The inuence of temperature on the effective diffusivity was
signicant (p < 0.05), as can be observed from the diffusivity values
shown in Table 1. Nitrite and water effective diffusivities increased
when the temperature rose. Other authors reported a similar effect
of temperature on the effective diffusivity of salts, such as sodium
chloride (Chiralt et al., 2001; Telis et al., 2003), or on a mixture of
curing salts (Pinotti et al., 2002) and also on the effective diffusivity
of water (Gou et al., 2003; Clemente et al., 2007).
Under the salting conditions, the temperature dependence of
both nitrite and water effective diffusivity was represented by
the Arrhenius equation (Fig. 7). The Ewa value (32.24 kJ/mol) for
water loss in the samples was similar to the values reported by
other authors: 25.9461.65 kJ/mol for Gluteus Medius muscle
salted with NaCl (Gou et al., 2003), 27.8 kJ/mol for Biceps femoris
and Semimembranosus muscles salted with NaCl and dried
(Clemente et al., 2007) and 22 kJ/mol for meat pork salted with
NaCl (Palmia et al., 1993). The ENa value (60.32 kJ/mol) for nitrite
diffusion was also comparable to the results reported by other
authors who studied the diffusion of sodium chloride into sh
and caiman, with values ranging from 29.00 to 168.13 kJ/mol
(Corzo and Bracho, 2008; Telis et al., 2003; Uribe et al., 2011;
Zhang et al., 2011).

Calc nitrite content (mg NO2-/L)

4000

3000

2000

1000

1000

2000

3000

4000

Exp nitrite content (mg NO2-/L)

Fig. 6. Comparison between experimental and calculated data for nitrite uptake
during salting at N 2 C, j 7 C and X 12 C (R2 = 0.98).

During curing, the water content of meat decreased while the

nitrite content rose. A good agreement was found between the
experimental kinetics (water loss and nitrite gain) and the diffusion model. In order to obtain a better understanding of nitrite diffusion in meat, it is important to include aspects such as the
dependency of salt diffusion on moisture content in the model
and also to consider meat tissue as an anisotropic medium. The
effective diffusivity of nitrite and water increased as the temperature rose. The activation energy for water loss was lower than the
one for nitrite gain.
Acknowledgements
The authors of this paper acknowledge the nancial support
from CONSOLIDER INGENIO 2010 (CSD2007-00016), Spain.
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