Role of Nitrite in Processed Meat Products and its Degradation during their Storage

ILIRJANA BOCI¹*, ELDA ZIU², GENTIANA BARDHI ³

^1* Department of Industrial Chemistry, Faculty of Natural Sciences, University of Tirana, Tirana, Albania,

² Head of Quality Control, Meat Processing Plant, EHW,Tirana, Albania,

³Food National Authority, Tirana, Albania,

*corresponding author e-mail  ilirjanaboci@yahoo.com

Download PDF Fulltext

Abstract

This paper represents the analytical data of nitrite level obtained from the experimental work done on meat processed samples taken from a meat processing plant in Tirana. There has been a long debate and health concern about the nitrite content in meat products. Nitrite is added to e.g. sausages, and hams and other meat products to preserve these products and keep them free from dangerous bacteria. Among the aims are preventing botulism, a dangerous food poison. But also it’s important to use the smallest possible amount of nitrite as a preservative because nitrite in meat can also form nitrosamines, which can damage the health. That’s why the role of nitrite in processed meat and its recommended level conform to new EC Regulations are given in the introduction part of this paper. It is important that the nitrite level be monitored during all the processing steps up to the end consumers. This makes the objective of this paper. It gives the analytical data on nitrite level on meat processed samples taken and tested during their storage and ripening period of time. Different kinds of meat products are taken and tested to evaluate the influence of various parameters (storage time, time until to the end consumers, various kinds of packing) in the degradation rate of ingoing nitrite.

Keywords: Nitrite content, degradation rate, storage time