If you buy certain lunch meats like ham you may see sodium nitrate on the ingredient list. Some organizations are calling for nitrates to be banned or place them on their lists of food additives you should avoid. The food industry says benefits such as preventing botulism outweigh any potential health risks, which they characterize as small. Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Agriculture limits how much sodium nitrate can be used in foods.
Identification
Sodium nitrate is used as a curing agent as well as a pickling agent, according to the "Handbook of Nutrition and Food," by Carolyn D. Berdanier. Sodium nitrate prevents bacteria that cause botulism from growing. Sodium nitrate, also known as chile saltpeter, serves as a color fixative in cured meats as well, so your hot dogs are an appetizing red instead of gray. It's used in dry cured meat due to the fact that it slowly breaks down into nitrite. Sodium nitrate also is used to improve the burning properties of tobacco and in matches, according to Oregon State University.
Types
Sodium nitrite is actually more commonly used for meat curing than sodium nitrate. However, sodium nitrate is used in some products like country ham due to the long aging period, according to the University of Minnesota. You'll also find it more commonly in fermented sausages and foods that are "dried cured," according to Oregon State University. Sodium nitrate may be used in combination with sodium nitrite in some foods, such as smoked or cured fish and meat products. The use of nitrates, nitrites or combinations of these cannot be more than 200 parts per million in a finished food product under USDA rules. This is calculated as sodium nitrite in the finished food product. That would translate to 1 oz per 100 lbs. dry cured meat or ¼ oz. per 100 pounds meat by-product or chopped meat, according to the University of Minnesota.
Considerations
Sodium nitrate and sodium nitrite are not on the generally recognized as safe, or GRAS, list of ingredients. There are concerns regarding sodium nitrate and cancer because it combines with natural stomach and food substances to cause nitrosamines, which are cancer-causing agents. Nitrosamines are found in fish treated with nitrates, according to Oregon State University. Nitrates and nitrites also can cause methemoglobinemia, a potentially fatal condition in which oxygen is cut off from the brain, especially in infants, according to the "Handbook of Food Preservation," by M. Shafiur Rahman.
Nitrates are difficult to control in processing, thus are being used less often, according to Oregon State University. Baby food manufacturers removed nitrates from their products in the 1970s. The U.S. Department of Agriculture and the FDA have asked manufacturers to show that using nitrates in food is safe. If manufacturers cannot provide proof of safety, the FDA and USDA will decide whether added nitrates should be banned, according to Oregon State University.
Amounts
Even if you avoid cured meats, you probably consume nitrates and nitrites. In fact, nitrate is a normal element in the human diet, according to the EPA. About 75 mg per day is the typical daily intake in the United States, which is about 0.2 to 0.3 mg nitrate or nitrogen per 2.2 lbs body weight a day. The level that may produce toxic effects is 1.6 mg nitrate or nitrogen per 2.2 lbs body weight per day. People normally consume more nitrates from vegetables than from the cured meats. They are found in beets, spinach, cabbage, radishes and celery, according to the University of Minnesota. Plants may contain up to 1 g per kilogram. Within a day or two of harvest, the nitrate in the plant converts into nitrite. Vegetables' nitrate content is affected by many factors such as soil conditions and fertilizer.
Safety
Nitrates can be turned into nitrites by microorganisms in foods and in your gastrointestinal tract. Nitrate toxicity is mainly caused by its conversion to nitrite, notes the Environmental Protection Agency. A fatal dose of sodium nitrite is 22 to 23 mg per 2.2 lbs body weight. To obtain such a lethal dose, 154-pound person would have to eat 18.57 pounds of a cured meat product that contained 200 parts per million sodium nitrite. If you were able to actually consume that much meat at once, salt would probably be the factor that did you in as opposed to the nitrites, according to the University of Minnesota. The Center for Science in the Public Interest, which places sodium nitrite and sodium nitrate on its unsafe to consume list, acknowledges that these substances in allowed amounts for foods carry only a small risk. The center notes that nitrite is used mostly in salty, fatty foods, so avoiding such products may improve nutrition.
Posted in: Food and Drinks