Sodium nitrate (E251)

Sodium nitrate is the preservative the food industry lists as E251. In our table it is high risk: it takes 30 points off the additive subscore, which is worth a third of a product's score (about 10 of the 100).

What Sodium nitrate does to a score

A packaged food's additive subscore starts at 100 and loses points for each additive on the label; that subscore is a third of the final score. Sodium nitrate takes 30 points off the additive subscore, which is worth a third of a product's score (about 10 of the 100). 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. Each finding is our one-line summary of what the source concluded, with the source and reference beside it.

• 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IARC Group 1 or 2A with a dietary exposure route; or EFSA has withdrawn or negated a safety conclusion; or EFSA’s own exposure assessment finds a child age group exceeding the ADI at mean intake; or the substance is banned or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.

Questions parents ask

Is Sodium nitrate (E251) safe for kids?

High risk. In Sito it takes 30 points off the additive subscore, which is worth a third of a product's score (about 10 of the 100). It is flagged for young children, and it is already in our top class, so the flag cannot move it higher. The finding we rely on: The 2A classification names ingested nitrate, not only nitrite (IARC Monographs Vol. 94 (2010), 'Nitrate or nitrite (ingested) under conditions that result in endogenous nitrosation', Group 2A).

What is E251?

E251 is the E number for Sodium nitrate, a preservative. Open Food Facts tags it en:e251.

Next to it on the label

The E numbers either side of E251 in our table, then the closest preservatives by number.

• Potassium bisulphite (E228), high risk, flagged for young children
• Natamycin (E235), no risk identified
• Hexamethylene tetramine (E239), moderate risk
• Potassium nitrite (E249), high risk, flagged for young children
• Sodium nitrite (E250), high risk, flagged for young children
• Potassium nitrate (E252), high risk, flagged for young children