Nitrate and nitrite food composition database: an update and extensive deep dive

Although it is a bit different from the usual topic of nitrosamines, I would like to introduce some literature about nitrite in food.

Results

The aggregated database has >150,000 nitrate and nitrite values for 823 foods, being 5+ times their original size. Nitrite content in plant foods is presented for the first time, being ≤12.27 mg/kg of fresh weight. Retention factors of 55.00 (39.59–65.56) % (median (interquartile range)) and 279.53 (179.53–386.89) % are now suggested for boiled and fried plant foods, respectively, with a factor of 1.0 for other cooking methods. Significant seasonal variations in plant nitrate and geographic differences in both plant- and animal-based foods are identified, whereas several leafy vegetables show declining nitrate content over 30 years, and longitudinal changes in nitrate and nitrite in animal foods are minor. An objective language–model-assisted data extraction pipeline was established that accommodates regional differences in nitrate/nitrite data reporting.

Nitr-Navigator website (www.nitr-navigator.com).

Nitrite is consumed at ppm levels from a variety of foods. Excipients may naturally contain less than 1 ppm of nitrite. Once the risk assessment of nitrosamines in pharmaceuticals has settled, what should we regulate next?

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Dear Yosuke,
thanks for sharing.
Its a long story this one and it reminds me one very nice paper from George Jonhson, in Medicines of Europe

where in one section present the comparison between pharmaceutical AI values of certain nitrosamines to levels of those same nitrosamines in foods, proving how low and unrealistic many AIs are.
Furthermore, i am wondering if the nitrosamine level finally is only the critical parameter to be measured or the ‘‘parent’’ amines levels should be also assessed, as those amines will be in touch with the nitrites in the body and could form additional portion of nitrosamines?
But all of them finally it returns back to the question of realistic AI of nitrosamines…
best regards
Christos

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Thanks a lot Yusukemino San, very valuable information and important for the world to understand.

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