Thawing and salting studies of dry-cured tuna loins

Cured tuna loin is a typical dry-salted product in Spain. Traditionally, loins are cleaned, stacked and smothered in sea salts, washed in bins with fresh running water, pressed and hung to dry. The aim of this study was to characterize the simultaneous thawing and salting of frozen tuna loins by using dry salt or brine and obtain a predictive equation which enable to determine the time needed to reach the same NaCl concentration as the commercial product. A reduction of the thawing time when using the simultaneous brine thawing and salting procedures was observed. A clear shortening of the processing time required to achieve the same NaCl concentration as in the commercial samples is observed when using the simultaneous thawing and salting process (89.5% and 42.8% time reduction for the brine and solid salt thawing and salting procedures, respectively).