CANADIAN WILTSHIRE BACON: II. CHLORIDE, NITRATE, AND NITRITE CONTENT OF BACON AND PICKLE

Abstract

Analysis of Wiltshire bacon produced in Canadian plants showed that different sides varied in their chloride, nitrate, and nitrite contents, the chloride content being the most uniform. Although the observed variations were statistically significant they do not necessarily affect the quality of the product. An analysis of variance showed that differences between the sides from different plants were the main general source of variation in the chloride and nitrate contents, while the differences between sides from the same plant were the main source of variation in nitrite content. This, and other evidence, indicates that the properties of the individual side affect its nitrite content to a considerable extent.The variation in the composition of the pickles used in different plants was significantly greater than the variations within plants, although the chloride content was relatively uniform throughout. Other curing practices, such as the number of injections used for pumping a side and the time in cure, also varied between different plants. Statistical computations showed that the number of injections used for pumping was correlated with the chloride and nitrite content of the sides, while their nitrate content was correlated with the nitrate content of the pump pickle. Although these factors affected the composition of the product with respect to each constituent, the level of the correlation coefficients was rather low. It is therefore concluded that most of the observed variation in the bacon was contributed by other unmeasured factors, or by inherent differences between the carcasses.The analysis of variance showed significant differences between the content of the three constituents at different samplings. The method of sampling, however, did not permit the true effect of ageing to be distinguished precisely from the effect of systematic differences in position, and the observed differences between samplings might possibly have been due entirely to the effect of position.