Abstract: Phosphates are widely used as common food additives in emulsified meat products. Phosphates can potentially synergize with sodium chloride to enhance the solubility of myofibrillar protein in salt solution, and promote the water holding and oil holding capacities of meat batter, thereby imparting good tenderness and juiciness to emulsified meat products. Currently, excessive contents of phosphates in emulsified meat products are a widespread problem. Excessive intake of phosphates can increase the burden on the kidney, reduce the absorption of various minerals in the body, and cause cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. Thus, in order to provide healthier emulsified meat products to consumers, it is important to develop novel strategies for reducing the phosphate content in the products. However, due to the unique role of phosphates and consumers’ attaching increasing importance to clean label processed meat products, how to reduce the phosphate content of processed meat products while maintaining the original quality has become a very challenging task. Based on previous studies, this paper systematically reviews the mechanism of action of phosphate in improving the quality of emulsified meat products, and new strategies to reduce the phosphate content in the products, which will provide a theoretical reference for the development of processing technologies for phosphate-reduced emulsified meat products.

Key words: emulsified meat product; phosphates reduction; quality; clean label; novel processing technology