Chlorine content in meat products

Slobodan Lilić; Branka Borović; Danijela Vranić; Jelena Babić Milijašević; Tamara Gerić; Milan Milijašević; Dunja Videnović

doi:10.18485/meattech.2025.66.3.71

Slobodan Lilić Institute of Meat Hygiene and Technology, Belgrade, Serbia https://orcid.org/0009-0004-9452-0361
Branka Borović Institute of Meat Hygiene and Technology, Belgrade, Serbia https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0371-0991
Danijela Vranić Institute of Meat Hygiene and Technology, Belgrade, Serbia https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7192-488X
Jelena Babić Milijašević Institute of Meat Hygiene and Technology, Belgrade, Serbia https://orcid.org/0009-0003-8923-7046
Tamara Gerić Institute of Meat Hygiene and Technology, Belgrade, Serbia https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9303-5231
Milan Milijašević Institute of Meat Hygiene and Technology, Belgrade, Serbia https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4269-236X
Dunja Videnović Institute of Meat Hygiene and Technology, Belgrade, Serbia https://orcid.org/0009-0008-2638-247X

DOI: https://doi.org/10.18485/meattech.2025.66.3.71

Keywords: chlorine, salt content, meat products

Abstract

Chlorine is a halogen element that appears in the human body as a free anion, and it plays important role in physiological processes. The main source of chlorine in food is sodium chloride. Data regarding the salt content in meat products were collected from the nutrition labels of 339 meat product from retail markets. The study encompassed 39 pates, 71 cooked sausages (41 finely minced and 30 coarsely minced), 66 pasteurized hams, 42 smoked meat products, 60 dry fermented sausages, 41 dry meats and 20 samples of bacon. The highest average chlorine contents were determined in dry fermented sausages and dry meat (2.30 g/100 g and 2.69 g/100 g, respectively) in accordance with their highest salt contents among the studied meat products. Due to table salt having a major role in meat processing, it can be concluded that meat products are important source of chlorine in consumers.