And ham
Nitrite has been controversial because a high-profile nutritional study once linked it to colon cancer (since, refuted). This was amplified at the time by a media driven by its usual agendas. As a result, food manufacturers saw a potential market for meats cured with ’no added nitrite’.
Nitrites are ions (charged particles) made up of an atom of nitrogen bonded to two oxygen atoms (NO₂). Nitrate is nitrite with an extra oxygen (NO₃). These ions are crucial for making cured meats such as bacon (from pork belly). With time, and the action of friendly bacteria, NO₃ can break down to NO₂, and NO₂ break down to NO (nitric oxide). NO is the active form and it binds to iron in the meat and hinders its oxidation when cooking (i.e. it doesn’t turn brown). In conjunction with table salt, the cured meat firms and changes its texture. As a result, when cured, pork belly becomes bacon (or pork leg becomes ham). Most modern cures start with nitrite. Some artisan cures may also include nitrate as a kind of ‘slow-release’ source of nitrite.
Without the nitrite, pork belly would just be brined pork and, while being a bit juicier, would still be recognisably belly and not bacon.
So, how does pork belly become bacon with ‘no added nitrite’, or ’no added nitrate’? Deceptively, the manufacturer finds a source of nitrite (or nitrate) that looks innocuous on the ingredients list.
Take this ingredients list from an up-market online store selling bacon that’s “nitrate-free”:
“Pork belly, water, organic cure (dextrose, emulsifier, maltodextrin, sugar, beetroot powder), beetroot powder, salt, raw sugar.”
Apart from the meaningless use of the word ‘organic’, there are four sources of sugar in this list, in the form of glucose. This is achieved without once mentioning the word glucose. Food labels are not there to inform the consumer — they’re a ‘sleight of hand’ to misdirect the consumer. It’s probably a fools errand to try and understand ingredients lists, best to just not buy the product if there are more than 5 on the list (the core definition of an ultra processed food).
To continue with the aside, here’s how the glucose was hidden:
Dextrose is glucose. There are two chemical forms of glucose, given the names L-glucose and D-glucose (left-handed and right-handed configurations of the same molecule). There is no L-glucose in nature or our diet (however, it can be made and studied in the laboratory). Because D-glucose is the only form of glucose relevant to our biology, organic chemists gave it its own name — dextrose.
Maltodextrin is a carbohydrate made up of very long chains of glucose. Maltodextrin gets broken down to its constituent glucose in our gut, and subsequently a large amount of glucose is absorbed.
Sugar (aka white sugar) is fructose bound to glucose that get broken apart and absorbed in the gut.
Raw sugar is extracted earlier in the white-sugar refining process while there is still some molasses in the mix. Molasses is itself a sweetener.
It’s interesting that salt, a traditional cure, is so far down the ingredients list for this product. Presumably supplanted by glucose that creates browning when cooking.
Anyway, that’s just an interesting distraction. The glucose content of commercial bacon is why, on a low-carb keto diet, I cure my own (with just two ingredients: table salt and nitrite).
BUT, the real question is: Is the product consisting of “Organic cure (dextrose, emulsifier, maltodextrin, sugar, beetroot powder), beetroot powder, salt, raw sugar” truly nitrate-free?
No, beetroot powder is on the list (twice) because it’s high in nitrate. Nitrate breaks down to nitrite and then to NO in the usual way. I suspect many consumers would imagine the primary purpose of beetroot powder would be as an innocuous pink colourant, and perhaps that is a secondary effect, or a subtle misconception intended by the manufacturer.
You might see celery juice (or powder) in some products — celery is high in nitrite. More generic bacon might just say ‘vegetable powders’.
The reason for all this is that plants are high in nitrite and nitrate. It’s estimated that ~80% of the nitrite and nitrate in the western diet comes from plants.
This should be no surprise given how important nitrogen is to the growth of plants. Nitrogen is an important component of fertilisers, and ample sources of oxygen enables the plant to produce nitrites and nitrates. These have various roles such as adaptations to environmental stressors. Plants cannot chose their environment, they have to adapt to it.
Some takeaways: Be highly suspicious of nutritional studies with simplistic messages; there’s no such thing as nitrite or nitrate-free bacon, just nitrite or nitrate-disguised; food labels are disingenuous marketing ploys not meant to be truly understood by the layperson; ultra-processed foods with more than 5 ingredients are best avoided; there is sugar in commercial bacon (it’s masked by salts); most of our dietary nitrite and nitrate comes from eating plants.
