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SCIENTIFIC OPINION ADOPTED: 5 April 2017 doi: 10.2903/j.efsa.2017.4786 Re-evaluation of potassium nitrite (E 249) and sodium nitrite (E 250) as food additives EFSA Panel on Food Additives and Nutrient Sources added to Food (ANS), Alicja Mortensen, Fernando Aguilar, Riccardo Crebelli, Alessandro Di Domenico, Birgit Dusemund, Maria Jose Frutos, Pierre Galtier, David Gott, Ursula Gundert-Remy, Claude Lambre, Jean-Charles Leblanc, Oliver Lindtner, Peter Moldeus, Pasquale Mosesso, Agneta Oskarsson, Dominique Parent-Massin, Ivan Stankovic, Ine Waalkens-Berendsen, Rudolf Antonius Woutersen, Matthew Wright, Piet van den Brandt, Cristina Fortes, Leonardo Merino, Fidel Toldra, Davide Arcella, Anna Christodoulidou, Jose Cortinas Abrahantes, Federica Barrucci, Ana Garcia, Fabiola Pizzo, Dario Battacchi and Maged Younes Abstract The Panel on Food Additives and Nutrient Sources added to Food (ANS) provided a scientific opinion re-evaluating the safety of potassium nitrite (E 249) and sodium nitrite (E 250) when used as food additives. The ADIs established by the SCF (1997) and by JECFA (2002) for nitrite were 0–0.06 and 0–0.07 mg/kg bw per day, respectively. The available information did not indicate in vivo genotoxic potential for sodium and potassium nitrite. Overall, an ADI for nitrite per se could be derived from the available repeated dose toxicity studies in animals, also considering the negative carcinogenicity results. The Panel concluded that an increased methaemoglobin level, observed in human and animals, was a relevant effect for the derivation of the ADI. The Panel, using a BMD approach, derived an ADI of 0.07 mg nitrite ion/kg bw per day. The exposure to nitrite resulting from its use as food additive did not exceed this ADI for the general population, except for a slight exceedance in children at the highest percentile. The Panel assessed the endogenous formation of nitrosamines from nitrites based on the theoretical calculation of the NDMA produced upon ingestion of nitrites at the ADI and estimated a MoE > 10,000. The Panel estimated the MoE to exogenous nitrosamines in meat products to be < 10,000 in all age groups at high level exposure. Based on the results of a systematic review, it was not possible to clearly discern nitrosamines produced from the nitrite added at the authorised levels, from those found in the food matrix without addition of external nitrite. In epidemiological studies there was some evidence to link (i) dietary nitrite and gastric cancers and (ii) the combination of nitrite plus nitrate from processed meat and colorectal cancers. There was evidence to link preformed NDMA and colorectal cancers. © 2017 European Food Safety Authority. EFSA Journal published by John Wiley and Sons Ltd on behalf of European Food Safety Authority. Keywords: potassium nitrite, sodium nitrite, E 249, E 250, food additive, CAS Registry number 7632-00-0, CAS Registry number 7758-09-0 Requestor: European Commission Question numbers: EFSA-Q-2011-00460; EFSA-Q-2011-00461 Correspondence: fi[email protected] www.efsa.europa.eu/efsajournal EFSA Journal 2017;15(6):4786 Re-evaluation of potassium nitrite (E 249) and sodium nitrite (E 250) Panel members: Fernando Aguilar, Riccardo Crebelli, Alessandro Di Domenico, Birgit Dusemund, Maria Jose Frutos, Pierre Galtier, David Gott, Ursula Gundert-Remy, Claude Lambre, Jean-Charles Leblanc, Oliver Lindtner, Peter Moldeus, Alicja Mortensen, Pasquale Mosesso, Agneta Oskarsson, Dominique Parent-Massin, Ivan Stankovic, Ine Waalkens-Berendsen, Rudolf Antonius Woutersen, Matthew Wright and Maged Younes. Acknowledgements: The Panel wishes to thank the following for the support provided to this scientific output: The hearing experts from the Scientific Committee: Josef Schlatter and Thorhallur Halldorsson; the hearing experts from the CONTAM Panel: Helle Knutsen and Jan Alexander and the members of the CONTAM Panel: Lars Barregard and the EFSA staff members Andea Bau, Petra Gergelova, Gilles Guillot, Laura Martino and Jose Gomez Ruiz for the support provided to this scientific output. The Panel wishes to acknowledge all European competent institutions, Member State bodies and other organisations that provided data for this scientific output. Suggested citation: EFSA ANS Panel (EFSA Panel on Food Additives and Nutrient Sources added to Food), Mortensen A, Aguilar F, Crebelli R, Di Domenico A, Dusemund B, Frutos MJ, Galtier P, Gott D, Gundert-Remy U, Lambre C, Leblanc J-C, Lindtner O, Moldeus P, Mosesso P, Oskarsson A, Parent-Massin D, Stankovic I, Waalkens-Berendsen I, Woutersen RA, Wright M, van den Brandt P, Fortes C, Merino L, Toldra F, Arcella D, Christodoulidou A, Cortinas Abrahantes J, Barrucci F, Garcia A, Pizzo F, Battacchi D and Younes M, 2017. Scientific Opinion on the re-evaluation of potassium nitrite (E 249) and sodium nitrite (E 250) as food additives. EFSA Journal 2017;15(6):4786, 157 pp. https://doi.org/10.2903/ j.efsa.2017.4786 ISSN: 1831-4732 © 2017 European Food Safety Authority. EFSA Journal published by John Wiley and Sons Ltd on behalf of European Food Safety Authority. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and no modifications or adaptations are made. The EFSA Journal is a publication of the European Food Safety Authority, an agency of the European Union. www.efsa.europa.eu/efsajournal 2 EFSA Journal 2017;15(6):4786 Re-evaluation of potassium nitrite (E 249) and sodium nitrite (E 250) Summary Following a request from the European Commission, the EFSA Panel on Food Additives and Nutrient Sources added to Food (ANS) was asked to re-evaluate the safety of potassium nitrite (E 249) and sodium nitrite (E 250) when used as food additives. Sodium (E 250) and potassium (E 249) nitrites are authorised as food additives in the European Union (EU) according to Annex II to Regulation (EC) No 1333/2008 on food additives and they were previously evaluated by the EU Scientific Committee for Food (SCF), the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) and the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). The acceptable daily intake (ADIs) for sodium and potassium nitrite (expressed as nitrite ion) established by the SCF (1997) and by JECFA (2002, 1996) were 0–0.06 and 0–0.07 mg/kg body weight (bw) per day, respectively. The Panel was not provided with a newly submitted dossier and based its evaluation on previous evaluations and reviews, additional literature that became available since then and the data provided following public calls for data. Not all original studies on which previous evaluations were based were available for re-evaluation by the Panel. Sodium and potassium salts of nitrite are commonly used in curing mixtures to develop and fix the colour of meat, to inhibit microbial growth and/or to develop characteristic flavours (IARC, 2010; Sindelar and Milkowski, 2012). Specific purity criteria on sodium and potassium nitrites are defined in Commission Regulation (EU) No 231/2012. The studies of toxicokinetics of sodium nitrite in animals and humans showed that the substance was absorbed to a great extent (nearly 100%) and did not undergo first pass metabolism (Hunault et al., 2009). In humans, the volume of distribution was larger than the body water indicating that nitrites were distributed at higher concentrations in some tissues compared with the blood. Nearly, all of nitrite was converted to nitrate, which then was excreted in the urine. Further metabolites of nitrite were nitric oxide (NO) and reactive oxygen species which were also formed during the conversion of nitrite to minor metabolites. Small amounts of nitrite were found in the urine (0.02% of the administered dose). The most important source of nitrite raised from the consumption of food and water containing nitrate and the conversion of nitrate to nitrite in saliva by oral nitrate-reducing bacteria (Witter and Balish, 1979b; JECFA, 2003a). This conversion of nitrate to nitrite was estimated to range from 5% to 36% (Wagner et al., 1983; Bartholomew and Hill, 1984; Spiegelhalder et al., 1976; Bos et al., 1988; Granli et al., 1989; Shapiro et al., 1991; Jin et al., 2013; Bondonno et al., 2015; Woessner et al., 2016; Hohensin et al., 2016; Montenegro et al., 2017). The available studies provided clear evidence of the genotoxic activity of sodium and potassium nitrite in vitro, with positive results in tests for gene mutations in bacteria and in tests for the induction of structural chromosomal aberrations, gene mutations, aneuploidy and cell transformation in mammalian cells. In vivo negative results were obtained in well-performed micronucleus assays in mice and rats, with measurable systemic exposure, after acute and subchronic administration of sodium nitrite. Limited negative data were also available at the site of contact. Overall, the Panel concluded that the available information did not indicate an in vivo genotoxic potential for sodium and potassium nitrite, and thus did not preclude the possibility to establish a health-based guidance value (ADI). Acute toxicity effects of sodium and potassium nitrite included relaxation of smooth muscle, vasodilation, and consequently, lowering of blood pressure, and methaemoglobinaemia. The oral LD50 in experimental animals was in the range of 100–220 mg/kg bw. In humans, oral lethal nitrite doses have been reported to be in the same order of magnitude as in animals, however in a wider range, likely due to wide variabilities in individual sensitivity (Health Canada, 2013). Short-term, subchronic and chronic toxicity studies in rats and mice using sodium and potassium nitrite primarily confirmed that the main observed effect is the formation of methaemoglobin. Methaemoglobin prevents normal oxygen delivery to the tissues, thus high concentrations of methaemoglobin can cause tissue hypoxia (Mensinga et al., 2003). The normal background concentration of methaemoglobin is 1–3% of total blood haemoglobin concentration (Goldsmith et al., 1976).