Science of Dangerous Sausage: Carcinogenic

Dried Sausage

Sausage is one of the processed meat product that has long been consumed by the public . Frankfurters is one type of food product in the form of sausage . Processed sausage products are being developed , both in terms of seasoning and in terms of the type of animal that the meat used in the manufacture of sausages . Meat is commonly used as a raw material is beef sausage , but this time there was also a sausage made ​​from the basic ingredients of other meats , such as chicken meat , rabbit meat , sheep meat and goat meat .

Increased shelf life of sausage can be done with the addition of food additives which have antimicrobial and antioxidant function , one of the food additives used in the manufacture of sausage is nitrite . Nitrite can serve as microbial preservative that has bacteriostatic effect and as agents that can improve the flavor , and is able to stabilize the red color in meat . The use of excess nitrite was found to cause harmful effects to human health , because nitrite can bind to amino and amide contained in meat protein and form nitrosamines which are toxic derivatives .

The main function of nitrite in the sausage-making is to improve the color of the meat. Improvement of meat color, cook sausage recommended to use as much as 3-50 ppm. Permitted levels of nitrite in processed meats final product is 200 ppm. Nitrite dose more than 15-20 g / kg of body weight will cause death. Nitrosamines are chemical compounds that can produce cancer (carcinogenic). Nitrosamines can form in certain food ingredients such as cured meats containing nitrites, when nitrite formed nitroso group (-N = O) which is chemically bonded to the nitrogen atom of ammonia on certain organic compounds, such as secondary amines (-NR2H) . The formation of nitrosamines in meat products can be prevented if the nitrite is not added to the product mix.