Chemical Forums
Specialty Chemistry Forums => Citizen Chemist => Topic started by: papa_bear on February 08, 2012, 07:15:36 AM
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Hi,
I don't know if this question belongs here, so feel free to move it if it doesn't.
I have some sodium nitrite which I use as a preservative for the sausages I make. It's blended with salt and sugar, so that the actual percentage of the sodium nitrite itself in the mixture is about 6 percent. Is there a way to isolate the sodium nitrite from the mixture to get the pure substance? I'm asking this because I want to control the amount of salt and sugar myself rather than have to rely on the pre-blended mixture.
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This will be very hard for a layman to do. The components are so closely similar to each other in solubility that separation will be very difficult -- you might be able to separate small amounts of salt and sugar away from nearly pure sodium nitrite, losing much of the sodium nitrite in the process, but not the other way around.
Look for a source for "pink salt" that's a pure(er) source for sodium nitrate for your home meat curing needs.
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Thank you for the reply, Arkcon.
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Sodium nitrite is actually easy to buy in pure, food-grade form. Even Amazon.com sells it: http://www.amazon.com/Grade-Sodium-Nitrite-Granular-Flowing/dp/B0044Q5SXU (http://www.amazon.com/Grade-Sodium-Nitrite-Granular-Flowing/dp/B0044Q5SXU)
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To be absolutely correct, you could get rid of the sugar by baking your mix at fairly high heat, the salts won't change, but the sugar will burn. But even with burning the sugar completely, the remaining two salts would be too difficult to separate.
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Sodium nitrite is actually easy to buy in pure, food-grade form. Even Amazon.com sells it: http://www.amazon.com/Grade-Sodium-Nitrite-Granular-Flowing/dp/B0044Q5SXU (http://www.amazon.com/Grade-Sodium-Nitrite-Granular-Flowing/dp/B0044Q5SXU)
Thanks, fledarmus. Unfortunately all the online suppliers I've found only ship to the U.S., including Amazon. If you know one that ships to other countries, do let me know.
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Are you sure it's 6% sodium nitrite and not 0.6%? Only an unsourced wikipedia statement suggests there is an EU regulation about this. This is news to me, I thought it had been banned on account of carcinogenic nitrosamine formation. I also thought manufacturers in the UK had moved over to sodium nitrate.