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My conception of the commonality of the knowledge of the difference between -ate and -ite in chemistry must be warped by taking high level classes at a young ag
by xerox13ster 4y ago
My conception of the commonality of the knowledge of the difference between -ate and -ite in chemistry must be warped by taking high level classes at a young age, because this article directly states that it is talking about Nitrite and not nitrates.
Nitrates are not nitrites. Nitrates have additional bonds with Oxygen and are therefore more stable than Nitrites.
This article is explicitly about nitrites being a clear risk of cancer and only contains a single reference to the world nitrates. The article you listed equates the two substances, but that's not the way the chemistry works here.
As the prime example of how different -ites and -ates are: Carbonate is CO3(2-) which is a constituent part of calcium carbonate or Sodium bicarbonate and carbonite is a cloud backup service because chemically, one less bonded oxygen is CO2, carbon dioxide, and that's how it works with carbon because of bonds valence bonds form between electrons, you'll have to forgive me if I'm fuzzy on the finer details, it's been a decade.
- Reason077 4y agoSodium nitrate breaks down into sodium nitrite in cured meat products, so it's the same thing by the time it reaches your bowel.
- xerox13ster 4y agoWell that is horrifying, I am glad I have always made my bresaola nitrate free then.
- djur 4y agoThe fuzziness here is because nitrates and nitrites are both used for meat curing, and the way the nitrate works is by being turned into the nitrite by bacterial action during the cure. Any nitrate that remains in the end product may then be turned into nitrite by gut bacteria. So from a food safety perspective they are really interchangeable. Current regulations in the US allow products made with organic nitrates to be labelled as "uncured" even though the end product would contain nitrites.
- jiveturkey 4y agonot just allowed, required. https://nationalaglawcenter.org/to-cure-or-note-to-cure-groups-petition-usda-labeling-requirements/ https://nationalaglawcenter.org/to-cure-or-note-to-cure-grou... > In the 1990s, manufacturers began developing new ways to cure meats with celery or other natural nitrate/nitrite sources. Federal labeling rules require meats processed in this manner to include the terms “Uncured” and the statement “No Nitrate or Nitrite Added” because they do not use synthetic curing agents. it changed in late 2021 though although i’m not clear by how much