Nitrite as a food additive

Abstract

Nitrite is used for its colouring, antimicrobial and flavouring effects as a food additive for several meat, fish and cheese products. Nitrite combines readily with secondary amines to form carcinogenic nitrosamines. Nitrosamines are found in many food products after nitrite addition and sometimes even without addition. Nitrite is regarded as an effective growth inhibitor for Clostridium botulinum and thereby its production of the lethal toxin. Today this is considered to be the main reason for addition of nitrite to food products. It should be possible to limit the addition of nitrite to a few special food products where Cl botulinum really represents a hazard to human health, i e to canned meat that is not sterilized by heat and some cured and fermented products. In Norway the use of nitrite is limited to products where growth of clostridia is possible, but in a few products nitrite is also allowed as a colour stabilizer. It is reasonable to expect that other countries will decide upon similar regulations. The naturally occurring nitrates in vegetables have to be included in the discussion due to the possibility of microbial reduction to nitrites.