RESUMO
Bacon was obtained from production lines of two local processing plants, H and M. The slices from 8 bellies from each plant were sequentially rearranged to form composite portions representative of each belly; these were analyzed for moisture-phase NaCl and for acceptability by a panel of judges using a 9-point hedonic scale. Samples were tasted shortly after processing and again after 6 weeks of storage at 4 or -23°C. The moisture-phase NaCl content ranged from 4.62 to 7.80% (c.v. = 18.2%) for bacon from plant H; the range for bacon from plant M was 3.25 to 10.05% (c.v. = 37.7%). The belly from plant M with the highest moisture-phase NaCl content also gave the lowest hedonic score of the bacon samples tasted before storage. The average hedonic scores for bacon from the two plants were different (p<0.05). There were no significant differences due to storage condition for bacon from plant M, but bacon stored at 4°C from plant H had lower (p<0.05) average scores than the bacon sampled shortly after processing or that kept 6 weeks at -23°. Storage at 4°C caused a significant (p<0.01) reduction in hedonic score in one belly from each plant.