TNO and Vaessen-Schoemaker Join Forces to Reduce Salt Levels in Meat

The reduction of the amount of salt in meat is a complex problem. Salt not only gives food taste, it also has an important function in maintaining the texture and the shelf-life.

15 Feb 2010 --- Two Dutch companies, researcher TNO from Zeist and Vaessen-Schoemaker B.V. from Deventer took the challenge to reduce the salt content of foods. Both parties are working together to reduce the salt content of meat products by 50% while maintaining taste and quality. The reduction of the amount of salt in meat is a complex problem. Salt not only gives food taste, it also has an important function in maintaining the texture and the shelf-life.

According to the “Voedingscentrum”, the National Health Assembly, every year more than 2500 people in the Netherlands die of illnesses related to high salt consumption. The Health Assembly recommends to reduce the daily consumption from 9 to 6 gram of salt. In order to make this possible consumers should give more attention to their salt intake. An important contribution can be the reduction of the salt content of food products. TNO and Vaessen-Schoemaker take up this challenge.

Vaessen-Schoemaker from Deventer has been developing and selling functional ingredients mixes for the international food industry for over sixty years. These products are applied in meat-, fish- and vegetarian products. With this co-operation Vaessen-Schoemaker intends to obtain in-depth knowledge on the basis of which effective and innovative solutions can be developed for its customers. Many of the current solutions are focused on the prevention of taste divergences. With this project we expect also to be able to develop solutions to maintain, or even improve the shelf-life and the structure of meat products, says Mr. Veth, Managing Director of Vaessen-Schoemaker.

The improvement of the composition of food is an important activity of TNO, says Ronald Visschers (Program Manager of Food Quality and Production). We are helping companies within the whole of the food industry with the reformulation of existing and the development of new healthy products. For instance TNO has already developed technology which helps reducing salt by 40% in bacon and pastry products. Also for the reduction of saturated fatty acids in bakery products up to 33% solutions have been found. Sugar reduction is also one of the key points. The developed solutions often can be applied for different products.

The project is carried out within the TNO EZ-co-financing programme. With this programme TNO directs their research to the future need of knowledge of the Dutch business community.