Hugo, A.Hugo, C. J.Cluff, M.Rautenbach, Anmeri2019-07-022019-07-022019-02http://hdl.handle.net/11660/9950Due to recent regulations that were passed by the South African Government limiting the sodium content of various processed food products of which Boerewors is one, the food industry now has to abide by new specified sodium levels. These regulations were implemented in an attempt to improve public health. Sodium chloride is one of the primary additives used in Boerewors production due to different functional and preservative properties it exhibits. Sodium does however, have an adverse effect on health when consumed in large quantities. Subsequently, a survey was done representative of the commercially available Boerewors in Bloemfontein, South Africa, in order to establish what the current sodium levels are in Boerewors, to what extent the products deviate from the current and upcoming Na limit and whether reformulation is necessary. It was found that around 60% of product labels did not include information on sodium included in the products. Most products did comply with current sodium limits and some of the products even complied with the next sodium limit for 2019. The second part of this study looked into the implications of these sodium reductions on the overall quality and stability of Boerewors products. The treatments were formulated according to current and upcoming regulations for sodium content. The effects of current inclusion limits and also of only reduced sodium content were tested alone and also in combination with KCl and K-lactate replacers, respectively. This was done in order to establish what the implication of the regulations are, if it is sustainable, whether selected replacers can help maintain quality and stability and whether or not products will need reformulation. From the study on the effect of reduced sodium content and addition of different replacers it was found that the aw, pH and moisture content was not significantly affected and there are no links to deviation independent parameters such as microbial stability. The results obtained from microbial and oxidative stability evaluation as well as from sensory analyses proved to be positive. Even though the replacers did not significantly help with improving microbial and lipid oxidative stability, all the treatments were stable over the shelf-life period with all the microbial values being within limits and no detection of rancidity. The addition of replacers could not be detected sensorily by consumers and in comparison with only the addition of NaCl, they also did not prefer one product over the other. Reduced levels of NaCl and also the addition of replacers maintained overall quality and stability. The treatment that contained KCl showed to help reduce cooking and total losses. In terms of the colour parameters tested, in general, all the formulations experienced decreases in lightness, redness, yellowness, and colour brightness while colour purity increased. The oxidative effect of high NaCl on meat product colour was confirmed, the addition of lactate as replacer did to some extent affect the meat product colour positively. The overall conclusions made after taking all the findings from results obtained into consideration, are firstly that product labels do not indicate necessary dietary information regardless of set out requirements through legislation and that there is still a large margin for improvement in providing consumers with information to help them understand legislation better and consequently to make healthier choices when buying products. Secondly, the next mandatory sodium inclusion limit in 2019 will not have a negative effect on the chemical or microbial stability of Boerewors products. And lastly, that because there were no major differences between the treatments with different NaCl levels and added replacers, the best option would be to only add NaCl at the indicated legislative level simply because it is more cost effective and consumers might feel more at ease when there are no extra added additives.enBoereworsSodiumSodium reductionSodium replacementMicrobial stabilityChemical stabilityLipid stabilityColour stabilitySensory qualityDissertation (M.Sc. (Food Science))--University of the Free State, 2019DissertationUniversity of the Free State