Nitrates, meat, vegetables and sausage safety














 








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Safety Concerns



Calculating Nitrates



 

Nitrate Safety Concerns
 
    There
has been much concern over the consumption of nitrates by the general public.
Studies had shown that when nitrites combine with by products of protein
(amines-in the stomach) that leads to the formation of nitrosamines which were
carcinogenic (cancer causing) in laboratory animals. There was also a
link that when nitrates were used to cure bacon and the latter one was fried
until crispy, it helped to create nitrosamines. But the required temperatures
had to be in 600 F range and meats are smoked and cooked well below 200 F so
even this fact has no bearing on the use of nitrates in meats.
    Those findings started a lot of
unnecessary panic in the 1970s about harmful effects of nitrates in meat on our
health. Millions of dollars were spent, a lot of research was done, many
researchers had spent long sleepless nights seeking fame and glory but no
evidence was found that when nitrates are used within established limits they
can pose any danger to our health.

    A review of
all scientific literature on nitrite by the National Research Council of the
National Academy of Sciences indicates that nitrite does not directly harm us
in any way. All
this hoopla about danger of nitrite in our meats pales in comparison with
the amounts of nitrates that are found in vegetables we consume every day. The
nitrates get to them from the  fertilizers which are used in agriculture.

Donłt
blame sausages for the nitrates you consume, blame the farmer. It
is more dangerous to onełs health to eat vegetables on a regular basis than a
sausage : "Hey, doc,
what about food pyramid ? Vegetables contain more nitrites than meat, can I
still have my carrot ?"
Nitrates in vegatables
The
following  information about nitrates in vegetables was published by MAFF,
Department of Health and the Scottish Executive before April 1st 2000 when the
Food Standards Agency was established.
Number
158      September 1998

MAFF UK
- NITRATE IN VEGETABLES

   
Vegetables contain higher concentrations of nitrate than other foods and make
the major contribution to dietary intake. A survey of vegetables on sale in
supermarkets was carried out in 1997 and 1998 to provide up-to-date information
on nitrate concentrations to assess the health implications for UK consumers and
also to inform negotiations on a review of the European Commission Regulation
(EC) No. 194/97 (which sets maximum levels for nitrate in lettuce and spinach).
A study on the effects of cooking on nitrate concentrations in vegetables was
also carried out to provide further refinements for estimating dietary exposure.
The
vegetables tested and the mean nitrate concentrations found were as follows:




Vegatable
Nitrate in mg/kg


spinach
1631


beetroot
1211


lettuces
1051


cabbages
 338


potatoes
 155


swedes
 118


carrots
  97


califlowers
  86


brussel sprouts
  59


onions
  48


tomatoes
  17




Cooking by boiling reduced nitrate concentrations in most
of the vegetables tested by up to 75 percent. Frying and baking did not affect
nitrate concentrations in potatoes but frying caused increases in levels in
onions.
Dietary
intakes of mean and upper range (97.5 percentile) consumers of these vegetables
are 104 mg/day and 151 mg/day, respectively. These are below the Acceptable
Daily Intake (ADI) for nitrate of 219 mg/day for a 60 kg adult set by the
European Commission's Scientific Committee for Food (SCF). There are therefore
no health concerns for consumers.
 The
legally set maximum limits for nitrites are :
2
pounds per 100 gallons pickle brine at the 10 % pump level in the product
1 ounce
per 100 pounds meat (dry cured)
¼ ounce
per 100 pounds chopped meat
    As
established in 1974 by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the use of nitrites,
nitrates, or combinations of them cannot result in more than 200 parts per
million (ppm), calculated as sodium nitrite. In 1978 the USDA prohibited the use
of sodium or potassium nitrate in pumped bacon and allowed only the addition of 120
ppm of sodium nitrite or 148 ppm of potassium nitrite.
Those changes apply only to pumped bacon and do not
apply to dry cured bacon.
Note: 148 ppm (parts per million) is the same as 148
mg/kg
How
Much Nitrite is Dangerous

   
According to the report prepared in 1972 for the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) by Battele
Columbus Laboratories and Department of
Commerce, Springfield, VA 22151
the fatal dose of potassium nitrate for humans
is in the range of 30 to 35 grams (about two tablespoons) consumed as a single
dose; the fatal dose of sodium nitrite is in the range of 22 to 23 milligrams
per kilogram of body weight.
    A 156
lbs adult (71 kg) would have to consume, at once  14.3 pounds (6.5 kg) of cured
meat containing 200 ppm of sodium nitrite. Taking under consideration that
nitrite is rapidly converted to nitric oxide during the curing process, the 14.3 lbs
amount will have to be doubled or even tripled. The equivalent amount of pure
sodium nitrite consumed will be 1.3 g. As
nitrite is mixed with large amounts of salt, it would be impossible to swallow it at least from a
culinary point of view.
    As our
most popular cures are in a pink color it would be very hard to mistake them for
common salt. Even if  Instacure 1, was misplaced in such an unusual way the
amount of salt needed to consume as a single dose will even be larger as there
are only 156 ppm of sodium nitrite in it. That
coresponds to eating of 18.26 lbs of meat at one sitting. And it will have to be
eaten very fast - clearly impossible, even by me.
The
only way to consume a fatal dose will be to mistake pure
nitrite (it is white)
for salt but the general public has no access to it and a home sausage maker uses
pink cure mixes which as explained in examples above are quite safe.
Note
: 1g of nitrite is generally accepted as the life threatning dose
 
The following information comes
from the book “Meat Through the Microscope" written by C.Robert Moulton, Ph.D.
and W.Lee Lewis, Ph.D. and published by Institute of Meat Packing, The
University of Chicago:
   
Soaking reduced the curing agents in most of the sub-sections (sliced ham-our
note) but especially in the butt and face sections. Smoking had little effect on
the salt, nitrate and sugar content but the nitrite content was decreased.
Baking reduced the percentages of all curing ingredients but the nitrite was so
greatly reduced that the highest value found was only 11 parts per million.
Table 66 gives the average composition of the five whole hams and shows clearly
the effects of soaking, smoking and baking.

 

Effect of Operations on Composition of Hams




Stage

Salt %

Sugar %


Nitrate %

Nitrite p.p.m.

Water %



Out of cure

4.93

0.79

0.057

138

65



Soaked

4.60

0.72

0.048

115

67



Smoked

5.15

0.76

0.06

  80

65



Baked

4.30

0.63

0.05

    2

56



 
   
To emphasize the importance of these results, and especially of the very great
destruction of nitrite by baking, one should remember in contrast that
sweet-pickle solutions will contain from 500 to 1000 parts of nitrite per
million and that the surface of hams removed from such pickles, especially at
the ragged edges of the butt, will most certainly contain over 200 p.p.m.
However, after soaking and smoking the average nitrite content is well within
the prescribed limits. In the survey summarized above only two out of 10 surface
sections showed over 200 p.p.m. of nitrite. In spite of the figures given in the
first part of this paragraph, no subsection of surface meat showed more than 11
p.p.m. after baking.
By the time meats are consumed, they contain less then 50
parts per million of nitrite. It is said that commercially prepared meats in the
USA contain about 10 ppm of nitrite when bought in a supermarket.
And we hope that we have proven above that all this talk
about the danger of nitrite makes very little sense at all. If we follow USDA
recommendations, the
nitrates/nitrites are
perfectly safe.
 

More information on curing can be found at:

Curing

 

Page edited on September 14, 2006.

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