The basic curing process uses salt to remove moisture from the meat ... and color the meat. Sodium nitrite is one of the most commonly used preservatives in cured meats. It reacts with the ...

SPAM is made with only a handful of ingredients, including pork (and ham), water, potato starch, sugar, salt, and sodium nitrite. That last one is an inorganic salt compound and a preservative ...

Sodium nitrite and nitrate are often added to sliced turkey as preservatives, but those compounds, which occur naturally in some foods, may form nitrosamines, which can cause cancer in lab animals.

Bacteria commonly utilize nitrate and nitrite as terminal electron acceptors for respiration in the absence of oxygen, or for incorporation in biomass. However, it was only recently described that ...