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Potassium nitrate is also known as potassium or potassium nitrate, as well as potassium nitrate, a substance that has been successfully used to fertilize soils. However, this component is found not only in the agricultural sector. Interestingly, potassium nitrate is also found in nature, often in salt deposits. However, natural reserves are not enough for industrial use, so the substance is synthesized in laboratories, so saltpeter for production processes is of synthetic origin.
Additive E252, which can be found on the labels of some products, is just potassium nitrate. Its use in the manufacture of food leaves many questions, since most of the countries of the world have already banned this method of using potassium nitrate, leaving it for technical needs. The rest of the countries, although they regulate the content of the substance in food, nevertheless do not see a particular problem in the fact that the consumer may encounter it in the composition of sausages or cheese. In international classifications, the additive E252 is assigned an average level of danger.
Obtaining a substance and its chemical properties
The preservative potassium nitrate has been known to mankind for more than one hundred years. The first mention of it dates back to the end of the 14th century – then the additive began to be mined in Frankfurt from human waste. However, the yield of the finished substance from such raw materials was negligible – about 0,3%, and already at that time the need for saltpeter was significant, so scientists proposed another way to obtain potassium nitrate: using copper sulfate, alum, sodium nitrate and potash. The last component was extracted from wood ash.
Today, to meet the needs of the industry, potassium nitrate is synthesized in several ways. One of them is the interaction of potassium chloride and nitric acid. The solution is mixed with compressed air and heated with live steam to a temperature of 75-80 degrees Celsius. This method is energy-intensive and time-consuming, so it is used less frequently. Another option for obtaining a substance is the conversion of potassium chloride with magnesium nitrate. The maximum amount of potassium nitrate obtained as a result is up to 96% of the mass of the initial mixture.
In order to obtain potassium nitrate with a more marketable appearance, with good friability and minimal moisture, wet crystals of potassium nitrate are first melted, and then the resulting substance is granulated in the air.
In appearance, the substance is a colorless or white powder, consisting of small crystals. Sometimes it can have a yellowish-brown tint. The additive has no smell, and it tastes salty and has a cool feeling that it leaves behind as an aftertaste. At a temperature of 400 degrees Celsius, potassium nitrate begins to decompose and release oxygen. It has excellent solubility in water, slightly soluble in glycerin, and in alcohols and ether it does not dissolve at all. In reactions with solvents and combustible substances, it acts as an oxidizing agent. In its chemical composition, it may contain impurities of nitrites or chlorides, sometimes it is used in production in a mixture with table salt.
The main purpose of the substance is to use it as a preservative and antioxidant: potassium nitrate is able to extend the shelf life of products, they do not spoil so quickly, they become less weathered.
Industrial purpose of preservative E252
For the production of food products, potassium nitrate is of no small importance: with its help, manufacturers ensure that the product retains its freshness, presentation and taste for longer. The additive is used in the following products:
- cheeses;
- meat delicacies (smoked meats, dried meat, salmon, sausages and sausages);
- fish products (pickled and salted fish);
- semi-finished pizza
The production of cheese practically cannot do without potassium nitrate – an additive in the composition of the raw material allows you to stabilize its structure, slow down the process of swelling and the formation of voids in the cheese.
For fish and meat, the substance gives a longer shelf life, and also enhances their characteristic pink color.
In addition, potassium nitrate is in demand in the glass industry, rocket fuel, toothpaste for sensitive teeth. Agriculture uses it as a mineral fertilizer for soils. And due to the fact that potassium nitrate is one of the components of gunpowder, the manufacture of various pyrotechnics and explosives is indispensable without it.
Features of substance storage
For industrial purposes, the additive is usually delivered, stored and transported in polypropylene or paper bags. To protect the substance from moisture, its packaging often contains a polyethylene lining inside. For this purpose, only food-grade polyethylene can be used.
The harm and benefits of a preservative
Potassium nitrate has not shown any beneficial properties for humans to date. But, according to the results of experiments and studies, scientists gave unambiguous conclusions: the substance can be dangerous for humans and harm them. It is forbidden to use it in baby food, although some unscrupulous manufacturers circumvent this ban, preferring to simply not indicate the “E252” code on the label, for example, sausages with the eloquent names “children”.
The main problem with the use of this preservative in food is that in the human body it turns into nitrites – dangerous carcinogenic elements that are quite capable of provoking the growth of malignant tumors.
The additive also negatively affects the state of the blood, disrupting the processes of oxygen exchange in it. In asthmatics, it can cause asthma attacks, for other people, even relatively healthy ones, daily intake of food with potassium nitrate threatens with anemia and kidney failure. Prolonged use of even small amounts of potassium nitrate causes headaches, nausea, vomiting, impaired coordination, muscle weakness and arrhythmias.
And if, for example, the amount of saltpeter eaten with sausage or cheese can still be somehow controlled, then the harm from vegetables, fruits, for which the additive was a fertilizer during the growth process, and even from water, where potassium nitrate could get from the soil, can be traced and quite difficult to assess.
There is information that the substance negatively affects male reproductive function, but the world community has not yet scientifically substantiated this fact.
Potassium nitrate is a food additive that most countries of the world have long “excommunicated” from the process of cooking for the population. In developed modern countries, its destiny is agriculture, the chemical industry, but not the food industry. In Russia and Ukraine, today the substance is allowed for use in food production. Due to the fact that the additive has a low cost and powerful preservative properties, it is put into sausages, cheeses, fish products, thereby turning them into a time bomb. Given the fact that potassium nitrate is able to turn into nitrites, and the latter tend to accumulate in the body and cause cancer, it is better to refuse to use the supplement and food with it not only for children, the elderly, pregnant and lactating women, but also for healthy people without any age or physiological characteristics.