Inhibitory effect of phosphates on magnesium lactate efflorescence formation in dry-fermented sausages

This study aimed to prevent the phenomena of efflorescence formation on the surface of dry fermented sausages due to the complexation of efflorescence forming cations with phosphates. Efflorescence' formation is a critical issue constituting a major quality defect, especially of dry fermented sausages. Different phosphates (di- and hexametaphosphate) were added (3.0 g/kg) to the sausage batter. As a hypothesis, these additives should complex with one of the main efflorescence-causing substances such as magnesium. The formation of efflorescences was determined for dry fermented sausages without phosphate addition, with diphosphate, or hexametaphosphate addition during 8 weeks' of storage under modified atmosphere. The visual analyses of the sausage surface revealed high amounts of efflorescences for the control (42.2%) and for the sausages with added diphosphate (40.9%), whereas the sausages containing hexametaphosphate had significantly reduced amounts of efflorescence formation, showing only 11.9% efflorescences after 8 weeks of storage. This inhibition was a result of strong complexation of hexametaphosphate with magnesium ions, thus preventing the diffusion of magnesium towards the sausage surface. This can be explained by the magnesium content on the sausage surface that increased by 163.9, 127.8, and 52.8% for the sausages without phosphate, diphosphate, and hexametaphosphate addition, respectively. The mass transport of lactate and creatine was not affected by phosphate addition. Isothermal titration calorimetry confirmed that, theoretically, 4.5 g/kg of diphosphate or 2.8 g/kg hexametaphosphate are required to complex 0.2g/kg magnesium ions naturally occurring in dry fermented sausages and, thus, the chosen overall phosphate concentration of 3.0 g/kg was enough when adding hexametaphosphate, but not for diphosphate, to inhibit the efflorescence formation.