Seven Essential Insights About the
Industry’s First Preservative-Free Salami

The Innovative Cure

Olli Preservative-Free Salami is produced using a basic salt cure, in combination with naturally-occurring polyphenolic compounds–the same healthy compounds that doctors recommend in consumption of berries, dark chocolate, and red wine. The result is the industry’s first truly preservative-free salami.

Why Do Salami Manufacturers Include Preservatives?

Traditionally, salami is made by adding nitrates and nitrites as a shortcut to curing–either as a direct chemical additive or through natural sources such as vegetable juice powders, leafy greens, cultured celery, and sea salt. It’s a compromise made for manufacturing speed. But Olli’s preservative-free process eliminates the use of all nitrates, nitrites, and additives.

How Is the Olli Process Different from a Typical Process?

Typical nitrate and nitrite additives expedite the curing process, a means of achieving a product that is microbially safe for consumption.These nitrogen-based compounds stabilize the heme iron of the hemoglobin protein in meat, providing a shortcut to curing and serving as a preservative that inactivates microbes, achieving the necessary 5-log reduction (lowering the number of microorganisms by 100,000-fold) to be safe for consumption. Olli is taking this process one step further, even eliminating reliance on naturally-sourced nitrates or nitrites, in favor of a simple salt-based slow cure. This simplified curing process, combined with innovative production techniques, achieves the required 5-log reduction, inactivating 99.999 percent of all microbes in the meat. The unique result is a salami that is effectively free of all preservatives.

Consumers Demand Clean Label Products

In recent years, consumer demand for “clean label” products has grown dramatically. As science furthers our understanding of the health benefits and risks of foods, consumers are seeking minimally processed products with ingredient transparency, which contain simple, natural ingredients that are easy to understand. Within the salami category, this means an emphasis on high quality ingredients without any additives that expedite the curing process, using only a simple salt cure to achieve 5-log reduction. By focusing on simple, quality ingredients and a long curing process, Olli is able to achieve an industry breakthrough that has the potential to reshape public perception about salami.

Reducing Health Concerns & Adding Lifestyle Benefits

Studies have proven that nitrates – especially when added to products in volume and from synthetic sources – can pose serious health concerns. Nitrates cannot be digested and instead are converted by gut biome into nitrites, an inorganic, water-soluble chemical. Added nitrates can also react with organic compounds in the food during the fermentation part of the curing process, producing nitrosamines which are considered to be carcinogenic. A preservative-free salami means eliminating those health concerns about nitrates. Plus, the natural polyphenolic compounds used in the Olli preservative-free process are believed to have a beneficial antioxidant effect on the human body.

The Highest Quality in the Industry

Olli Salumeria has maintained the highest ingredient standards in the industry, producing the only Italian-style salami in the U.S. that is entirely free of antibiotics, hormones, and synthetic nitrates/nitrites. Olli salami products are slow-cured using a blend of traditional Italian and modern techniques. Great-tasting salami requires time for the meat to ferment and take on its complex flavor through a slow-cure production cycle, eventually becoming salami flavored not only by spices but by a combination of method, meat, starter culture, and sugar. The result is a 100% authentic Italian salami with a distinctively sweeter, less acidic taste.

Simpler Is Better

At Olli, we believe in simplicity. We make the world’s best-tasting salami through a combination of simple ingredients, simple processes, and a lot of patience. Our slow curing preservative-free process has been extensively tested to ensure the highest safety and quality standards in the industry, and that difference is evident in the rich flavor of our salami.