Study of sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax L.) salting process: Kinetic and thermodynamic control

The development of salted products from sea bass could contribute to diversify its current offer. Establishing the most appropriate salting method would be the first step towards obtaining high quality salted products. The aim of this work was the study of kinetic and thermodynamic control of sea bass salting process. First of all, the kinetics of the salting process was studied, by analyzing the influence of the process variables (moisture content, water activity, sodium chloride and total weight change) at different salting times, in order to obtain the time required to achieve a fixed salt content. In the case of thermodynamic control, the objective was to determine the amount of salt to be added to reach a previously fixed salt concentration. The obtained results point to some advantages of the thermodynamic control method over the kinetic method; in that it offers higher homogenization of the salted fish and a more easy to control salting procedure.