Determination of nitrites in meat systems: An improved procedure

Various analytical methods for nitrite determination in meat products, based on extraction of the preservative through digestion at 60-80 degrees C followed by colorimetric analysis gave relatively poor recover ies (44-65%) when applied to raw beef. An improved procedure was developed based on disintegration and dispersion of beef with sand prior to the extraction step and on the use of a higher concentration of N-(1-naphthyl) ethylenediamine dihydrochloride than normally used. The proposed technique resulted in almost 93% recovery of nitrites and showed a high precision revealed in a variation coefficient of similar to 8%. (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd.