Cured processed meats contain salt and therefore can be brine chilled with little or no effect on taste. However, because the salt concentration in the brine is higher than that in the product, you can expect that the product will absorb a small amount of salt. We have found that processed products absorb 0.1 to 0.2% salt during brine chilling. In other words, if the incoming salt content of a vienna was 2.0%, its salt content exiting the chiller might be 2.1 to 2.2%.

If you are making a salt-reduced product such as low-salt sausages, you will need to keep close watch on the salt concentration in the brine and adjust it if needed. Often, these low-salt products also have practical limits to avoid crust freezing, so you may already be using warmer, lower-salt brine.