To my understanding, sodium nitrite is a synthetic food additives which mainly used for curing.
Recently, there are some uncured meat products (e.g. bacon) which used plant nitrate such as celery powder to replace sodium nitrite for curing and therefore results in comparable quality but of course a short shelf-life.
My question is that, is plant nitrite different from sodium nitrite? Meaning that it would not form carcinogenic nitrosamine that's why it was claimed to be healthier?
If it is so, what are the properties that distinguish these two types of nitrites and accounts for no formation of nitrosamine from plant nitrite?
Thank you so much for clarifying my confusion.
Nitrite is a negative ion in aqueous solutions. Its origin does not matter at all.
Different sources may differ in solubility or speed of reaction but the basic ion remains the same.
This question may require some research. The nitrite molecule itself will be the same no matter what the source is. But you mention that the meat treated with plant nitrite has a shorter shelve life. This might suggest 1) They are using less nitrite in the plant-nitrite meat, or 2) The plant nitrite is in some way bound up with the plant matter when applied. Either of these _could_ mean that that fewer nitrosamines would be formed in the plant-nitrite meats or from eating the plant-nitrite meats. But you would need more investigation to conclude that this is plausible.
Exactly, I support the view of Dr S. S.Mangiafico, further research is needed to reach to the more concrete conclusions.
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