An EU directive in October 2023 introduced changes to the permitted levels of nitrite and nitrate in cured food, which came into full effect on 9 October 2025.
The reason for the change is to reduce the chance of nitrosamine formation whilst keeping the meat safe. Nitrosamines have been linked to some forms of cancer. As home curers who do not sell their products, we don’t have to comply with this, and in the UK, even commercial suppliers don’t have to now that we’re no longer in the EU. However, I intend to – I think it would be irresponsible to ignore a law whose formulation is based on the advice of some of the best meat and other scientists in the world.
Whilst there are derogations for some traditional products, just like the old regulations, many of these are based on residual amounts of nitrite/nitrate – little use to home curers who don’t have testing facilities to determine these.
As in the older regulations there are some generic limits that are based on the ingoing nitrite/ nitrates. Unlike the previous regulations these are now specified in mg/kg NO2 and NO3. Conversion between these is shown in the regs for Sodium; those for Potassium are my calculations.
The new ingoing limits are:
- E249 & E250 Potassium and Sodium Nitrite 80mg/kg
- E251 & E252 Sodium Nitrate and Potassium Nitrate 90mg/kg
The conversion factors are:
- Sodium Nitrite to the Nitrite ion 0.67
- Sodium Nitrate to the Nitrate ion 0.73
- Potassium Nitrite to Nitrite ion 0.541
- Potassium Nitrate to Nitrate ion 0.6133
Multiplying those out gives maximum levels of nitrite and nitrate expressed as mg/kg (Parts Per Million) of:
- Sodium Nitrite 119.4mg/kg
- Sodium Nitrate 123.3mg/kg
- Potassium Nitrite 147.9mg/kg
- Potassium Nitrate 146.8mg/kg
Suggested usage rates, based on these, are:
Cure #1 (6.25%) Sodium Nitrite –1.9gm per kg meat – 118.75mg/kg nitrite.
Cure #2 (6.25%)Sodium Nitrite, 4% Sodium Nitrite – 1.9gm per kg meat – 118.75mg/kg nitrite and 75mg/kg nitrate.
Saltpetre (Potassium Nitrate) usage remains similar to current limits, reduced slightly to 0.1468gm per kg meat – 0.15gm when rounded. I’ll continue to use 0.15 gm per kg.
As always, scales capable of measuring to one tenth of a gram are recommended, and in the case of saltpetre, scales that can measure to one hundredth of a gram.
The calculators on this site will be altered to compy over the next few weeks.
As far as I know, US curing regulations are unchanged.