BS 4401-7:1976

This standard BS 4401-7:1976 Methods of test for meat and meat products is classified in these ICS categories:

• 67.120.10 Meat and meat products

This Part of BS 4401 describes a reference method for the determination of the nitrate content of meat and meat products.

The method is applicable to all meat products, other than those having an unusually high content of strongly reducing substances. Strongly reducing substances (e.g. ascorbic acid, ascorbates) tend to reduce nitrite under the acidic conditions obtained in this method. If the content of reducing substances is much higher than that which has normally resulted from the manufacturing processes hitherto applied, the results obtained by this method could be misleading.

NOTE ISO 3091 describes the method as suitable for meat and meat products, without indicating any limitation.

Extracted nitrate is reduced to nitrite then estimated spectrophotometrically after addition of sulphanilamide and N-1-naphthylenediamine. Applicable to all meat products except those with an abnormally high content of strong reducing agents.