Operational diagrams for salting-marination processes and quality of cooked mussels

The objective of this work was to investigate the effect of salt and acid concentrations on the mass transfer during salting and marination processes of pre-cooked mussel meat. The influence of these processes on the microstructure, water holding capacity (WHC), pH, and acidity of the samples was also evaluated. Salting was performed using different brine concentrations, bs (5-20 g/100 g), while the marination used solutions with different NaCl (ms) and acetic acid (ma) concentrations (ms of 5-20 g/100 g and ma of 0.5-6 g/100 g). The salting with a bs of up to 15 g/100 g led to hydration of the mussel meat. However, the marination caused samples' dehydration for all the concentrations considered. Moreover, the addition of acid resulted in a greater modification of the WHC and microstructure of the mussel meat. From the experimental values of moisture (M) and salt (S) content, two operational diagrams were constructed. These diagrams can be important tools for choosing salting and marination process conditions, for given water and salt contents in the final product.