Study of moisture and salt transfers during salting of sardine fillets

The objectives of this work are to study the effect of salting time, salt concentration and temperature on moisture and salt transfers within Sardinella aurita fillets. Temperature rise as well as brine concentration increase (from 5 to 20 °C and from 15 to 26.5% NaCl, respectively) accelerated water exudation and salt diffusion in the sardine fillets. Salt and moisture apparent diffusivities evolution as a function of concentration were determined by a mathematical treatment without fixing any mathematical relationship between values of diffusivity and concentration. Moisture apparent diffusivity increased from 2.40 × 10−10 to 1.90 × 10−8 m2/s with fillets moisture content increase (from 0.35 to 3.00 g/g db, i.e. 25.9–75% w/w). For a salt content range from 0.16 to 12.80 g NaCl/100 g water, salt apparent diffusivity was relatively constant. Hence, sardine fillets water diffusivity is more related to moisture content than salt diffusivity to brine concentration.