Someone will always ask: wouldn't there be nitrite in the refrigerator when the meat dishes were cooked a day or two in advance? Isn't it just leftovers? It can be said that leftovers are an embarrassing existence in ordinary people's homes, and it is a pity to throw them away and worry about eating them. The fear is that nitrite in leftovers will cause poisoning and cancer. If you don't eat some of the food you will waste food, you will inevitably feel guilty in your heart. Especially when there is a pile of meat left, I personally am reluctant to throw it away, and I have thrown it away, but when I am very hungry before lunch the next day, I will feel sad because I have wasted it again.
What is Nitrite?
Nitrates from food are not created in a vacuum, but are produced by bacteria using nitrates in vegetables. More than 80% of nitrates in food come from vegetables (mainly green leafy vegetables), and a small amount comes from tea and fruits. Grains and fresh meats contain very little nitrate, so there is no need to worry about nitrite from staple foods and meat dishes that are refrigerated in the refrigerator for a day or two. Therefore, without considering the external addition, only vegetables have to worry about nitrite.
I remember when I went to college more than ten years ago when I went to eat donkey meat fire, because the major I studied at that time involved nitrite knowledge, I found that the meat burned by donkey meat at that time was likely to be nitrite products. The color of the cooked meat is peach, the deep peach of the bright peach blossoms, I look a little "scary", so I whispered to the production master if there is "nitrate" (sodium nitrite) added, and how to add "nitrate".
The master said very honestly at the time, making sauce meat has always to add nitrate, otherwise there is no such color, there is no such taste, and there is no way to preserve, I asked him how much he added, he said that according to the general practice, 100 catties of meat plus 2 taels. According to Chinese standards, the maximum amount of nitrite added in the production of marinated meat cannot exceed 015g kg, 2000 catties of meat can only add 150 grams, and not 100 catties of meat plus 100 grams, which has exceeded the permitted amount of addition several times.
Nitration is a "traditional process". It is allowed to be added if it does not exceed the standard, but it is difficult to control the amount of "handmade". Now thinking back to what happened when I was a child, an uncle in the family is very good at using nitrite, and has always liked to add something mysterious to the bacon and bacon for the New Year, and the meat will turn pink. Thankfully, I haven't eaten that thing for years.
The delicatessen industry is involuted
The honest processing of the traders is not as competitive as the nitrate
In the food industry, nitrite is a commonly used food additive, which can be used as a coloring agent and preservative for the marinated processing of meat products, because the growth and reproduction of Clostridium botulinum may produce highly toxic botulinum toxin, and nitrite can inhibit the growth of Clostridium botulinum that may be present in meat products. Therefore, the rational use of nitrite is not only not harmful, but can help inhibit the growth of some harmful bacteria, which is very important to ensure people's food safety. In addition, after nitrite is added to meat, it can combine with the heme in the meat to form pink nitrosoheme, so that the meat products have a beautiful pink color after cooking, which is the color development effect of nitrite.
There is nothing wrong with rational use, but abuse is widespread nowadays, and many people are unaware of the critical uses of nitrite, often just to make the meat look better, or to make the spoiled meat look fresher. The misuse of nitrite has penetrated into the cooking of various meat products, from only being used in pigs, cattle and mutton, to all animal foods, even chicken, duck and aquatic products. The use of nitrite or nitrite-containing tender meat powder, meat water retention agent, and sausage improver to make meat products, so that the meat products are pink in color, tender in taste, and not easy to spoil, has become an untold secret for the vast majority of chefs, and most people use nitrite completely "by feeling".
By adding meat flavors and seasonings, this kind of counterfeiting can not be easily discovered by consumers. Most consumers are not meticulous in tasting, and they are not familiar with the texture characteristics of various meats, and they often cannot eat the difference in the case of heavy seasoning. As a result, the fraudulent stores can still make money at low prices, and the honest stores are either closed or forced to embark on the road of counterfeiting because of the high prices.
Acute poisoning is rare
However, chronic cumulative poisoning should also be a concern
Nitrite does have a certain toxicity, toxicological data show that nitrite has a certain acute toxicity, for caries, its half lethal dose is 57 mg kg, which means that for normal adults, unless nitrite is directly consumed as table salt, it will basically not reach the toxic dose. Moreover, acute nitrite poisoning usually occurs only in infants and young children with imperfect metabolism or in people who accidentally ingest large amounts of nitrite.
In fact, nitrite is more worrying about its chronic toxicity. Because nitrite reacts with protein breakdown products under acidic conditions, nitrosamines are recognized as carcinogens. Since the pH level in the stomach is just right for the formation of nitrosamines, nitrite is said to increase the risk of cancer. Based on the understanding of nitrite, my family will buy meat and make marinated products by themselves when they have time, and they will also refer to the color when buying cooked meat, which color is the normal color and buy that.