One of the best ways to utilize venison that is not used for steaks or roasts is for a variety of sausage products. Smoked sausage, summer sausage, snack sticks and jerky are some of the most popular choices, and local meat processors usually offer additional specialty products that they have developed. Many hunters choose to make their own sausage as well, and small-scale meat processing equipment and blends of spices with other ingredients have become widely available.

Nitrites and Nitrates

In any case, the best approach is to choose meat products that are cured because this means that nitrite and perhaps nitrate will be among the ingredients used. Nitrite is a highly effective preservative that suppresses the development of rancid flavors, stabilizes meat color and acts as a strong inhibitor of bacteria. Cured sausage products will be safer and will have a much longer storage life than uncured sausage such as breakfast sausage. However, there is a very common perception among many people that nitrite, nitrate and cured meat are hazardous to human health. This is a myth that has been circulated and recirculated since the 1970s and just doesn’t go away. Fortunately, in the last 25 years or so, a very different story has been developing as a result of a great deal of research showing that nitrite and nitrate are positive contributors to human health and may even be necessary for good health. This side of the story has not received the degree of attention that it deserves.

Meat Your Maker

To fully understand the controversies surrounding nitrite, nitrate and cured meat, let’s start at the beginning with a little history. It is clear that cured meats have been produced for centuries and predate written history. Speculation has it that the original preservation method for meat was probably addition of salt and, somewhere along the line, someone noticed that salt that was contaminated with saltpeter (potassium nitrate) was a more effective preservative than salt alone. Consequently, saltpeter and, later, nitrate became the common means by which meat was cured and preserved. As science began to develop, it was discovered in the 1890s that nitrate was converted to nitrite by bacteria in meat and that it was nitrite that was the active curing agent. The real breakthrough, with implications for the future, came in 1901 with a study that showed that nitrite created the properties that characterized cured meat, especially the color, by forming nitric oxide during the curing process. There were two very significant results of this. First, nitrite rather than nitrate became the ingredient of choice for meat curing, and second, the discovery of nitric oxide would prove to be a blockbuster discovery, but not until some 80 years later!

In the meantime, the events that led to the present-day concerns about nitrite, cured meat and human health began in the 1970s when it was discovered that nitrite could, in high concentrations, react with secondary amines in meat and other foods to form nitrosamines, which were already recognized as very potent carcinogens. Because nitrite was used for meat curing, this discovery, of course, stimulated a huge amount of research on the safety of cured meat. Research by meat scientists demonstrated that reducing and controlling the amount of nitrite in cured meat mitigated the potential risk of nitrosamines, and the USDA modified some of the meat curing regulations, particularly for bacon, that helped to solve the problem. These changes have reduced the likelihood of nitrosamine formation in cured meat to near zero, and, in fact, cured meats are no longer even tested for the presence of these compounds, so they are NOT a significant health risk in cured meat products.

Nitrites, Nitrates and Human Health

Now for the exciting part of the story on human health. During the 1970s, when research on nitrite in meat curing was at its peak due to the concerns about nitrosamines, meat scientists were studying nitrite and nitrate following human consumption by comparing ingested with excreted amounts of nitrite and nitrate in human subjects, and it was discovered that we excrete significantly more than we consume. This was an “aha!” moment because it meant that the human body actually manufactures its own form of nitrite and nitrate. Follow-up research determined that we have an enzyme system that produces nitric oxide, the same molecule that is responsible for cured meat. Because there is almost always a purpose for things that occur in nature, scientists began to study nitric oxide in human physiology and discovered that nitric oxide is a critical component for many biological processes including cardiovascular functions, blood pressure regulation, wound healing and even athletic performance. In fact, the role of nitric oxide has been shown to be so important that the original team of scientists that reported many of these effects was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1998. Remember: The meat industry had first discovered nitric oxide as the active meat curing agent in 1901!

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Nitric oxide has been shown to be especially important to cardiovascular health because nitric oxide relaxes and dilates blood vessels to result in reduced blood pressure. It has also been determined that as we grow older, our natural enzyme system produces less nitric oxide, which makes other means of blood pressure control more important. This is where dietary sources of nitrite and nitrate can be important because diet can provide a supplementary source of nitric oxide, and this has been confirmed in several studies. In fact, there are now numerous nutritional supplements available that provide nitrate, which will result in increased amounts of nitrite and nitric oxide in tissues and blood following consumption. Increasing the concentrations of nitrite in tissues and blood has been suggested as a means to not only reduce blood pressure but also to prevent or reduce the damage that can occur during heart attacks and strokes because of the improved dilation of blood vessels and increased blood flow.

The primary dietary source of nitrate found in human consumption (about 80%) is vegetables such as celery, spinach and several others. Some scientists have even suggested that the widely recognized positive health effects of vegetables in the diet is due, at least in part, to the nitrate content of vegetables. Other effects of dietary nitrate include improved wound healing due to increased blood flow and increased athletic performance due to increased blood flow through dilated blood vessels in muscles. Some Olympic-class athletes and major college athletic teams have been taking nitrate supplements because of the documented increase in endurance and efficiency of muscle functions during exercise. The importance of dietary nitrite and nitrate for human health has reached the point that some scientists have suggested (somewhat tongue-in-cheek) that they should be considered essential nutrients.

Where the Concerns Come From

It is important to note that the positive effects of nitrite and nitrate have been demonstrated in documented clinical trials involving human subjects, so there can be little doubt about the observed results. On the other hand, the concerns about nitrite and nitrate in cured meat for human health have been the result of epidemiological studies, and these types of studies do not produce cause-and-effect results. Epidemiology depends on finding correlations between observations such as meat consumption and cancer incidence. It is important to remember that a correlation essentially means that two things happen at the same time but provides no evidence that one causes the other.

Conclusion

Don’t worry about using nitrite or nitrate in your venison sausage, providing you use the proper amount, or, for that matter, don’t worry about consuming any other cured meat products that are available in the supermarkets. The latest evidence suggests that consumption of nitrite and nitrate may actually be good for you!

— Dr. Joe Sebranek is a distinguished professor of animal sciences, food science and human nutrition at Iowa State University. This article was originally published in the Summer 2020 issue of Deer & Deer Hunting Magazine. Copyright Media 360 LLC. All rights reserved.

References

Bondonno, C. P., K. D. Croft and J. M. Hodgson. 2016. Dietary nitrate, nitrite, nitric oxide and cardiovascular health.  Critical Reviews in Food Science and Human Nutrition, 56: 2036-2052.

Bryan, N. S. 2016. Dietary nitrite: from menace to marvel. Functional Foods in Health and Disease 6(11): 691-701.

Bryan, N. S., D. D. Alexander, J. R. Coughlin, A. L. Milkowski and P. Boffetta. 2012. Ingested nitrate and nitrite and stomach cancer risk: an updated review. Food and Chemical Toxicology 50(10): 3646-3665.

Bryan, N. S., and J. L. Ivy. 2015. Inorganic nitrite and nitrate: evidence to support consideration as dietary nutrients. Nutrition Research 35(8): 643-654.

Jacob, J., G. Sreeraj and C. Divya. 2018. A randomized single dose parallel study on enhancement of nitric oxide in serum and saliva with the use of natural sports supplement in healthy adults. Journal of Dietary Supplements 15(2): 161-171.

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