Nitrate and nitrite

Nutrition manuals explain that residues and impurities that originate from agriculture to food packaging or in the environment (water, air) are called “pollutants”. Nitrate and nitrite (NO3 and NO2) have the particularity of beneficial use (as a fertilizer and preservative for meat and cheese, the first, and as a cure and preserver of the red color of meat, the second) and contamination, since daily intake is higher than the acceptable encourages cancer. Plants such as lettuce, radish, spinach, store a large amount of nitrate, especially when they are grown in greenhouses without sunlight. On the other hand, too much fertilizer at the wrong time causes nitrate to pass into ground-based sources of drinking water.