Sodium nitrite is the preservative the food industry lists as E250. 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, FDA, each one below.
What Sodium nitrite does to a score
A packaged food starts with 33 points for what is in its ingredient list. Sodium nitrite 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) — 'Ingested nitrate or nitrite under conditions that result in endogenous nitrosation', Group 2A
Group 2A (probably carcinogenic) explicitly for the ingested/dietary route, confirmed in the IARC classification list (List_of_Classifications, entry 'Nitrate or nitrite (ingested) ... 2A / 94 / 2010'). -
EFSA
10.2903/j.efsa.2017.4786 (EFSA Journal 2017;15(6):4786)
ADI 0.07 mg nitrite ion/kg bw/day (BMD approach, methaemoglobin). Exposure from additive use 'did not exceed this ADI for the general population, except for a slight exceedance in children at the highest percentile', and represented approximately 17% of overall dietary exposure; counting all dietary sources the ADI is exceeded for infants, toddlers and children at the mean. -
IARC
Monographs Vol. 114 (2018) — processed meat, Group 1
Consumption of processed meat (the food category nitrite is used to cure) is Group 1 — context for the product vehicle, not a classification of the additive itself. -
FDA
21 CFR §172.175 (sodium nitrite); §181.34 (prior-sanctioned nitrite in curing)
Remains a permitted curing agent in the US with use limits; no US ban or phase-out.
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IARC Group 1 or 2A with a dietary exposure route; or EFSA has withdrawn or negated a safety conclusion; or EFSA’s own exposure assessment finds a child age group exceeding the ADI at mean intake; or the substance is banned or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 high. 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 nitrate (E251), high risk
- Potassium nitrate (E252), high risk