Sodium nitrate is the preservative the food industry lists as E251. In our table it is high risk: it takes 30 of the 33 additive points off a product's score for a child.
- High risk. 30 of the 33 additive points come off a product that carries it.
- Flagged for young children. Set only where EFSA’s own exposure assessment shows toddlers or children exceeding or approaching the ADI, or where a regulator used explicitly child-specific language. For a child under 6 it moves one class up.
- 4 citations from IARC, EFSA, Open Food Facts, FDA, each one below.
What Sodium nitrate does to a score
A packaged food starts with 33 points for what is in its ingredient list. Sodium nitrate takes 30 of the 33 additive points off a product's score, and a child under 6 sees it one class higher again. Scan the pack in Sito and the score you get is the one for your own child's age, with this additive named in the reasons. How we score has the whole method.
What the sources found
Every classification in our table comes from the citations below, and nothing else. They are quoted as the source wrote them.
-
IARC
Monographs Vol. 94 (2010) — 'Nitrate or nitrite (ingested) under conditions that result in endogenous nitrosation', Group 2A
The 2A classification names ingested nitrate, not only nitrite. -
EFSA
10.2903/j.efsa.2017.4787 (EFSA Journal 2017;15(6):4787)
ADI 3.7 mg nitrate/kg bw/day. Exposure from additive use was <5% of overall nitrate exposure and did not exceed the ADI; 'if all sources of exposure to dietary nitrate are considered ... the ADI would be exceeded for all age groups at the mean and the highest exposure'. -
Open Food Facts
additives taxonomy node en:e251
OFF encodes children and toddlers as the mean-exceedance groups for nitrate — consistent with the EFSA all-sources table. Recorded as a cross-check of that taxonomy against the EFSA opinion; the classification rests on the EFSA and IARC citations, not on this entry. -
FDA
21 CFR §172.170 (sodium nitrate); §181.33
Permitted in the US in curing with limits.
Why this class
IARC Group 1 or 2A with a dietary exposure route; or EFSA has withdrawn or negated a safety conclusion; or EFSA’s own exposure assessment finds a child age group exceeding the ADI at mean intake; or the substance is banned or formally being phased out for food use by the EU, by the US FDA, or under a US state law.
Our confidence in this row's classification is medium. Medium or low does not mean the evidence is weak; it means something about the row is still being pinned down, usually a regulatory status confirmed from one source rather than two.
See what is in your own cupboard
Scan a packaged food and Sito names the additives in it, then scores the product out of 100 for your child's age.
Other preservatives in the table
- Calcium sulphite (E226), high risk
- Calcium bisulphite (E227), high risk
- Potassium bisulphite (E228), high risk
- Potassium nitrite (E249), high risk
- Sodium nitrite (E250), high risk
- Potassium nitrate (E252), high risk