Vinegar-Lemon Compound Shown to Help Cure Organic Pork

(Keith Weller, Agricultural Research Service/USDA)

Makers of pork products who want to label their products as organic or natural are faced with a problem: two traditional curing agents for pork -– nitrites and nitrates -– aren’t allowed in natural and organic versions of the meat. Iowa State University (ISU) researcher Joe Sebranek, with support from the Food Safety Consortium, believes he found a solution.

Sebranek, a professor of animal science, food science, and human nutrition at ISU in Ames says industry had already identified a vegetable juice powder that could provide a natural source of nitrate to serve as a curing agent and still be classified as a natural source. But there still would not be as much nitrite in the product as in a conventionally cured product and it would be at greater risk from bacterial pathogens.

In his research Sebranek found two natural antimicrobial ingredients -– vinegar with lactate and vinegar with lemon powder -– and incorporated them into the naturally cured pork products. The result was that bacterial pathogens such as Listeria monocytogenes in the naturally cured pork products were inhibited, though still not to an equivalent level as in conventionally cured pork products.

ISU researchers are examining other natural antimicrobial ingredients including cranberry extracts that have antioxidants and potential antimicrobial compounds.

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