Nitrite free trend...fact based or mostly hyped

That's strange, my first posting never showed up. Let's try this
again.

Hello there. I make various smoked meat products and use Prague
Powder #1, which contains about 6% sodium nitrite. It seems that
there is a movement toward nitrite free products because of the
supposed carcinogenic effects of the chemical. Is there any solid
evidence to support this or is it mostly hype? Obviously it's
dangerous if you ingest large quantities of it, but I wonder if that's
truly the case if you stick to the recommended levels. In any event,
are there any viable alternatives to prague powder that are nitrite
free?

Btw, I apologize in advance is meat curing is not a main topic of
discussion here. I thought it might be related so I figured I'd give
it a shot. I also posted on rec.food.preserving

.

Relevant Pages