How To Check Vegetables In The Store For Nitrates: An Overview Of Methods

2024 Author: Bailey Albertson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 12:53

How to test store vegetables for nitrates: an overview of effective methods

Nitrates are salts of nitric acid. Plants need them for full growth and development. But with an excess of them in the soil, plants not only process them, but also accumulate them in reserve in the fruits. Can such products be consumed and how dangerous is it for health?

Content

• 1 Why nitrates are harmful

  1.1 Video: the benefits and harms of nitrates

• 2 How to check vegetables in the store for nitrates: an overview of methods

  • 2.1 Checking with a nitrometer

  • 2.2 Video: testing vegetables and fruits for nitrates

    2.2.1 Feedback on the use of SOEKS nitrometer

  • 2.3 Nitrate test strips

    2.3.1 Video: Determination of nitrates with test strips

  • 2.4 Laboratory method
• 3 Which vegetables have more nitrates

Why nitrates are harmful

Nitrates not only come from food and water, they are also produced by the body itself. Present in the gastrointestinal tract, they perform a protective function against bacterial infections, and also have vasodilating and antispasmodic properties. Nitrates in the body are broken down to nitric oxide, the role of which is very important: it promotes fat burning and increases the endurance of the muscle frame.

Many medicines are made on the basis of sodium nitrite that help to normalize the work of the cardiovascular system and reduce blood pressure.

However, an excess of nitrates has a negative effect on a person:

• the amount of iodine in the body decreases;
• different types of tumors in the stomach can develop;
• intoxication and poisoning of varying degrees are possible;
• nitrates affect the production of hormones, their sharp increase can cause miscarriage during pregnancy;
• an increased load on the organs of the urinary system is created;
• nitrates are converted to nitrites, which bind blood hemoglobin, which leads to oxygen starvation (hypoxia); lack of oxygen causes shortness of breath, tachycardia, arrhythmias, headaches.

Safe daily intake of nitrates has now been introduced. For different countries, the numbers are slightly different:

• Russia and the CIS countries - 300-320 mg;
• Germany - 50-100 mg;
• USA - 400-500 mg;
• UN FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization) - 500 mg

For children, the safe level of nitrates in food is much lower, it can be calculated using the formula 0.2 mg per 1 kg of body weight

Video: the benefits and harms of nitrates

How to check vegetables in the store for nitrates: an overview of methods

If an agricultural product is in doubt, you, as a consumer, have the right to obtain complete information about it from the seller. When making a declaration for a product, the supplier is obliged to carry out a series of laboratory tests that confirm the safety of the product.

But for complete confidence in the safety of products, you can check the nitrate content yourself.

Checking with a nitrometer

To determine the amount of nitrates using such a device, you need to select the appropriate culture from the menu, and then stick the measuring probe into the fruit pulp. The result of the measurement and a message about how safe it is to eat will appear on the screen.

Disadvantages:

• large value of measurement error;
• check for nitrates can be carried out only after payment for the purchase or with the permission of the seller;
• high cost of the device (from 4200 to 15000 rubles, depending on the model)..

Using this method, it must be borne in mind that in different parts of the plant the content of nitrates is not the same, most of them are:

Chinese cabbage and lettuce - in the conductive parts of the plant: in the stems and vessels, and it increases when moving to the root system

• carrots - in the core, especially in its upper part;
• beets and radishes - at the point of attachment of the leaves;
• cucumbers and radishes - peeled;
• melon and watermelon - also in a hard crust and in layers of pulp close to it;
• squash, zucchini, eggplant - at the point of attachment to the stem.

The nitrometer monitor will not only show the amount of nitrates, but will also light up red, green or yellow, signaling the degree of danger

Video: checking vegetables and fruits for nitrates

Reviews on the use of SOEKS nitrometer

Nitrate test strips

Test analysis procedure:

1. Remove the test strip from the bag.
2. Cut an approximately 0.5 x 0.5 cm section of the test strip.
3. Immerse a section of the test strip in the test liquid for 5–7 seconds or apply it to the fruit cut until the strip section is completely wetted. Do not remove the polymer coating!
4. Allow a section of the test strip to stand in the air for 2-3 minutes.
5. Determine the concentration of nitrates by comparing the color of the test strip area with the color samples of the control scale. Choose the closest in color intensity sample of the control scale.
6. The concentration of nitrates in the test liquid corresponds to the concentration value of the selected color sample of the control scale.
7. After testing, place unused test strips in a bag.

Using this method, you can approximately determine the dangerous concentration of nitrates in foods or in water, but it is easier to use it at home, that is, after purchase. The method cannot be called cheap - the cost of 100 tests is about 1000 rubles.

This is what the package insert for nitrate tests looks like.

Video: determination of nitrates using test strips

Laboratory method

A complete laboratory test gives the most accurate results. But it is very difficult to implement it at home, it is easier to contact a specialized laboratory.

Which vegetables have more nitrates

When choosing products in the vegetable department, you need to remember certain rules:

• in fruits that are fully ripe under natural conditions, there are less nitrates;
• among vegetables of one type, the least nitrates will be in the one that has an average size.

Different vegetables can store nitrates in different amounts. Depending on the possible content of nitrates in fruits, they are divided into several groups:

1. From 10 to 150 mg / kg - peas, tomatoes, peppers, garlic, late varieties of carrots, onions, potatoes (subject to proper storage).
2. From 150 to 700 mg / kg - cucumbers, green onions of all varieties, white cabbage of late varieties, sorrel, pumpkin crops of local zoning, early varieties of carrots, late cauliflower.
3. From 700 to 1500 mg / kg - early varieties of cauliflower and white cabbage, broccoli, kohlrabi, beetroot, turnip, radish, radish, rhubarb, celery root, green onions in a greenhouse.
4. From 1500 to 4000 mg / kg - green leafy vegetables, dill, parsley and celery, indoor radish, beet leaves.

The described methods allow you to protect yourself from excessive consumption of nitrates with food.