Abstract
In the processing of meat products, various food additives are being used. In an effort to clarify the mechanism of the formation of cooked cured meat color in case, an investigation was performed with an aqueous model system as to the effects on the behavior of nitrite, of some food additives usually employed in processing meat products by means of a colorimetric method for nitrite determination which was proposed in the previous paper.
The results obtained are as follows:
(1) The food additives tested generally exercised more striking effects on the behavior of nitrite in test solutions of pH 5.0 than in those of pH 6.0.
(2) Most food additives tested were found to exhibit a tendency to promote the decomposition of nitrite in the presence of sodium ascorbate, whereas nitrate, tripolyphosphate and hexametaphosphate tended to inhibit to a certain extent the decomposition of nitrite in the presence of ascorbate.
Pyrophosphates initially inhibited the decomposition of nitrite in the sample solutions containing sodium ascorbate, however, after being kept for 72hours at 4°C, they apparently promoted the decomposition of nitrite in the very same sample solutions.
(3) The decomposition of nitrite was promoted by the addition of sorbic acid, potassium sorbate and sodium sorbate even in the absence of ascorbate.
In the presence of ascorbate, however, sorbic acid promoted the decomposition of nitrite, while potassium sorbate and sodium sorbate inhibited appreciably the decomposition of nitrite.
AF 2 exhibited no effect on the behavior of nitrite.
