Nitrite formation from vegetable sources and its usage as a preservative in cooked sausage.

BACKGROUND
Due to the potential health risk associated with nitrites, nitrite alternatives from natural sources in meat products have been investigated. We compared the nitrate contents of young radish, lettuce and commercial vegetable powder (cabbage and Chinese cabbage), as well as investigated the effect of incubation time and salt addition on vegetable nitrite formation from vegetable sources. The antioxidant and antimicrobial effects of vegetable nitrite in cooked sausage were also compared with sodium nitrite.

RESULTS
Young radish produced the greatest amount of nitrite after 24 h of incubation at 38 °C. On average, an approximately 32% reduction of nitrite was observed in sausage during 4 weeks of storage. Lipid oxidation in sausage was significantly prevented by vegetable nitrite produced from vegetable powder or young radish. The color of the sausage prepared with young radish was most similar to that of the sausage with sodium nitrite. The addition of young radish to sausage significantly prevented the growth of L. monocytogenes at 4 °C and S. aureus at 8 °C.

CONCLUSION
Young radish was more effective as a natural antioxidant and antimicrobial agent as compared to commercial vegetable powder, which is currently used to make natural meat products, indicating that young radish has a high potential as a natural preservative.