Revealed: no need to add cancer-risk nitrites to ham

[Eugene]

Source: The Observer

Revealed: no need to add cancer-risk nitrites to ham

Confidential meat industry report shows additives do not prevent food poisoning

Jamie Doward
Sat 23 Mar 2019 15.00 GMT

A bombshell internal report written for the British meat industry reveals nitrites do not protect against botulism – the chief reason ham and bacon manufacturers say they use the chemicals.

The study, conducted for the British Meat Processors Association (BMPA) by the scientific consultancy Campden, and marked “confidential”, examines the growth of the toxin Clostridium botulinum in the processing of bacon and ham.

It is understood that the paper, seen by the Observer, was commissioned to provide evidence that nitrites, which have long been linked to cancer, are essential to protect consumers from food poisoning and, in particular, botulism, a potentially fatal disease. But, in what appears to be a major blow to the industry’s claims, the research found there was no significant growth of the bacteria in either the nitrite-free or the nitrite-cured samples that were tested.

The paper concludes: “The results show that there is no change in levels of inoculated C botulinum over the curing process, which implies that the action of nitrite during curing is not toxic to C botulinum spores at levels of 150ppm (parts per million) ingoing nitrite and below.”

-snip-

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/food/2019/mar/23/nitrites-ham-bacon-cancer-risk-additives-meat-industry-confidential--report

[Bayard]

1. Dang

Good to know.

[erronis]

2. Isn't it obvious to discerning consumers that "nitrates, nitrites" are there to sneak sodium

into your food?

Sodium Chloride (NaCl - table salt), Mono-sodium glutamate (MSG), sodium nitrite/nitrate/etc.

I'm a huge salt (NaCl) lover but I know that too much sodium in my diet is bad. Some potassium (KCl) can be substituted but it doesn't give the same satisfaction.

Common salt (NaCl) has been used for millennia to preserve foods - for good reason: pathogens don't like a highly saline environment. Neither do our bodies.

Sodium nitrite may have some preservative effect but it is probably more of a by-product of the rendering of carcasses in a highly saline solution.

WDIK?