Food Safety: The Science of Keeping Food Safe by Ian C. Shaw

Author:Ian C. Shaw
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Tags: Horticulture, Technology & Engineering, Life Sciences, Food Science, Science
ISBN: 9781118402214
Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
Published: 2012-10-01T22:00:00+00:00

Table 7.21 Nitrate concentrations in vegetables compared with the nitrate level in bacon – bacon is pork cured in salt and sodium nitrate. It is impossible to know whether the nitrate in vegetables originates from the use of nitrate-containing fertilisers. (Data from Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries & Food Surveillance Paper No. 3; Nitrite, nitrate and N-nitroso compounds in food: second report. Stationery Office, London, 1992; except * from Kotsonis et al. (1996) In: Klaassen CD (ed.) Cassaret & Doull’s Toxicology, the Basic Science of Poisons, 5th edn. McGraw-Hill, New York, p. 937.)

Vegetable Mean [nitrate] (mg/kg)

Spinach 1,631

Beetroot 1,211

Lettuce 1,051

Cabbage 338

Potato 155

Bacon 160*

Swede 118

Carrot 97

Cauliflower 86

Brussels’ sprouts 59

Onion 49

Tomato 17

The problem, of course, is that we can’t distinguish between natural nitrate in food and nitrate from fertilisers; and indeed what does it matter? It is nitrate per se that is associated with cancer not only nitrate from fertilisers. Despite this, many countries monitor nitrate in food as part of schemes to assess human exposure and the possible health effects.

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