## 3 Results
### Chemical Composition and Physicochemical Properties of Fermented Loins
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c} \hline  & **Storage Time** & **FL0** & **FL50** & **FL100** & **FL150** \\  & **[Month]** & & & & \\ \hline  & 0 & 1.63 \(\pm\) 0.13 \({}^{\rm b,A,B}\) & 1.40 \(\pm\) 0.12 \({}^{\rm b,A}\) & 1.20 \(\pm\) 0.11 \({}^{\rm a,B}\) & 1.04 \(\pm\) 0.13 \({}^{\rm a,A}\) \\ TBARS & 1 & 1.80 \(\pm\) 0.46 \({}^{\rm b,C}\) & 1.88 \(\pm\) 0.18 \({}^{\rm b,B}\) & 1.16 \(\pm\) 0.10 \({}^{\rm a,A}\) & 1.13 \(\pm\) 0.06 \({}^{\rm a,A}\) \\
[mg kg\({}^{-1}\)] & 4 & 2.27 \(\pm\) 0.66 \({}^{\rm a,C}\) & 2.60 \(\pm\) 0.46 \({}^{\rm a,C}\) & 2.22 \(\pm\) 0.86 \({}^{\rm a,C}\) & 2.26 \(\pm\) 0.52 \({}^{\rm a,C}\) \\  & 6 & 1.51 \(\pm\) 0.05 \({}^{\rm a,A}\) & 1.47 \(\pm\) 0.05 \({}^{\rm a,A}\) & 1.60 \(\pm\) 0.06 \({}^{\rm a,B}\) & 1.64 \(\pm\) 0.07 \({}^{\rm a,B}\) \\ \hline Total pigment & 0 & 109.7 \(\pm\) 18.4 \({}^{\rm a,B}\) & 101.8 \(\pm\) 6.4 \({}^{\rm a,B}\) & 96.6 \(\pm\) 5.9 \({}^{\rm a,B}\) & 91.7 \(\pm\) 10.9 \({}^{\rm a,B}\) \\ content & 1 & 65.4 \(\pm\) 9.1 \({}^{\rm a,A}\) & 60.6 \(\pm\) 2.8 \({}^{\rm a,A}\) & 65.7 \(\pm\) 8.2 \({}^{\rm a,A}\) & 66.5 \(\pm\) 8.1 \({}^{\rm a,A}\) \\
[mg kg\({}^{-1}\)] & 4 & 72.1 \(\pm\) 11.9 \({}^{\rm a,A}\) & 69.6 \(\pm\) 6.2 \({}^{\rm a,A}\) & 63.6 \(\pm\) 3.5 \({}^{\rm a,A}\) & 65.0 \(\pm\) 6.4 \({}^{\rm a,A}\) \\  & 6 & 68.3 \(\pm\) 12.4 \({}^{\rm a,A}\) & 71.2 \(\pm\) 4.1 \({}^{\rm a,A}\) & 69.9 \(\pm\) 3.7 \({}^{\rm a,A}\) & 68.1 \(\pm\) 5.9 \({}^{\rm a,A}\) \\ \hline  & 0 & 9.7 \(\pm\) 2.5 \({}^{\rm a,B}\) & 9.0 \(\pm\) 0.6 \({}^{\rm a,B}\) & 8.5 \(\pm\) 0.5 \({}^{\rm a,B}\) & 7.4 \(\pm\) 1.0 \({}^{\rm a,B}\) \\ Heme iron content & 1 & 4.9 \(\pm\) 0.8 \({}^{\rm a,A}\) & 5.3 \(\pm\) 0.2 \({}^{\rm a,A}\) & 5.8 \(\pm\) 1.6 \({}^{\rm a,A}\) & 4.2 \(\pm\) 1.7 \({}^{\rm a,A}\) \\
[mg kg\({}^{-1}\)] & 4 & 7.1 \(\pm\) 1.7 \({}^{\rm a,A}\) & 6.1 \(\pm\) 0.5 \({}^{\rm a,A}\) & 5.6 \(\pm\) 0.3 \({}^{\rm a,A}\) & 5.4 \(\pm\) 0.2 \({}^{\rm a,A}\) \\  & 6 & 6.0 \(\pm\) 0.2 \({}^{\rm a,A}\) & 6.3 \(\pm\) 0.4 \({}^{\rm a,A}\) & 6.2 \(\pm\) 0.1 \({}^{Figure 1 presented the cross-sectional appearance of fermented loins after the production process and after six months of storage. The cross-sectional appearance indicates greater differences in the color of the products after the end of ripening compared to those stored for six months. The L*, a* and b* values of fermented loin samples during storage are shown in Table 6. It was seen that the level of sodium nitrate addition had a statistically significant effect on lightness (L*) and redness (a*) values. The reduction of nitrate decreased the value of the L* color parameter at the end of production (month zero). In the following months of storage, the differences between the formulations were in many cases statistically insignificant (\(p\geq 0.05\)). With prolonged storage time, especially between the first and fourth month, the lightness value decreased for the samples without the addition of nitrate (FL0) and with its lowest level (FL50). The greatest effect of the level of nitrate addition and the storage time was noted for the a* color parameter determining redness. The lowest redness was recorded in the samples without nitrate (FL0) at the end of production (month zero), while the highest values were noted in the FL50 sample at month one. The differences in the redness value were not statistically significant between the FL100 and FL150 samples. The color differences (\(\Delta\)E) between fermented loin samples with various amounts of sodium nitrate showed that the greatest color changes took place during production (change calculated from the color of the meat and product at the end of production). During storage, the color changes for the samples ranged from 2.47 to 9.75. The greatest color changes were shown by the FL150 sample. The analysis of the formulations of fermented loins with different nitrate level additions at the end of processing revealed residual sodium nitrite levels of below 10 mg kg\({}^{-1}\) (Table 7).