RESUMO
Cured meats represent a large portion of the consumed processed meat products. These processed meats are attractive in their color, flavor, texture and are popular because they combine variety with convenience reliability. Despite its numerous benefits and multifunctional properties in processed meat products, nitrite has often been a source of concern due to its health hazards. This study was conducted to investigate the level of sodium nitrite in some cured meat products during their chilling storage period. Results showed that the means [ +/- S. E.] of the sodium nitrite residues [mg/kg] of the Bastrami, Salami, Luncheon, Sausage and Smoked meat samples were [174.6 +/- 9.27; 100.5 +/- 4.46; 116.9 +/- 4.12; 94.8 +/- 4.17 and 79.1 +/- 2.90] respectively at zero time and these values decreased significantly during all chilling the storage time till it reached [50.7 +/- 2.57; 28.1 +/- 1.23; 40.8 +/- 1.78; 35.1 +/- 2.06 and 14.5 +/- 1.02] respectively at the end of the chilling storage period [4 months