South Korea has self-assessed that Korean kimchi is the healthiest food, our citizens can not help but wonder, is it possible that Korean kimchi does not contain nitrites?

First of all, let me tell you for sure that Korean kimchi definitely contains nitrites, just not in high levels. Kimchi originated in China, is a vegetable as the main raw material, fermented and processed dip products, before being introduced to South Korea, its production process and our kimchi's much the same [1], both the source of nitrite or the production of nitrite in the trend of change is more or less the same.

The fresh vegetable raw material itself carries nitrate and nitrite, of which nitrate accounts for the majority and nitrite content is very small. In the process of fermentation, the nitrate reductase in the raw material itself as well as in the microorganisms in the environment will reduce the nitrate in kimchi to nitrite. Zhang Jianzhong and others [2] have tested the content of nitrite in the production of kimchi, the results show that: with the increase in the number of days of fermentation, the content of nitrite in kimchi increases to the peak and then decreases, and the content of nitrite in about a week is much lower than the national standard limit.

So, although the fermentation process will produce nitrite, but we do not have to worry about the problem of excessive nitrite, as long as you control the production process conditions and the number of days of fermentation, there will be no problem. This also shows that Korean kimchi is not free of nitrites, just a very low level.

Korean kimchi is also a pickled product with a high salt content, so we must eat it in small amounts. One of the culprits behind the high incidence of stomach cancer in Korea is the Korean love of kimchi, so "Korean kimchi is the healthiest food" seems a bit of a slap in the face!

First of all, let's look at the vegetables in the nitrite is how to come, nitrite nitrate and nitrite are widely available in the natural world of soil and water. Some plants also contain nitrates in the body, different varieties of different content, such as green vegetables in the beet, lettuce, spinach, celery and radish and other nitrate content is relatively high. This is due to crop cultivation, the use of nitrogen-containing pesticides, nitrogen-containing fertilizers caused.

The nitrate content of different vegetables is different, of which sauerkraut nitrites need to be minimized to about 40 days, so pickled pickles inside the actually basically no nitrites.