Nitrate Database
Comprehensive nitrate content data for foods and beverages from the Nitr-Navigator database
Introduction
The nitrate table presented here is derived from the comprehensive Nitrate, Nitrite, and Nitrosamine Database (Nitr-Navigator), utilizing global data. Each food item included in this table is sourced from more than two unique data sources (references).
Therefore, it's important to note that not all foods within the database are represented here. For a complete list of included foods, please refer to the combined food table. The geographic distribution of the data is also available in the database statistics page.
The Nitr-Navigator allows for the aggregation of data from multiple sources to derive a comprehensive nitrate content for specific food categories. For instance, data from various lettuce cultivars such as "Lettuce", "Lettuce, Butterhead", "Lettuce, Iceberg", "Lettuce, Loose Leaf", and "Lettuce, Romaine" can be combined to obtain a generalized nitrate content for all lettuce varieties.
Please contact us to discuss the data extraction and calculation procedures tailored to your specific requirements. Our team has developed a nitrate/nitrite calculator (as Jupyter Notebook, access through team) that can automatically and efficiently assign content values to food records while applying multiple protocols, and a Nitr-Navigator data portal (NitriXplorer) that can filter and visualize data.
Aggregated food nitrate content table from Nitr-Navigator (as of Apr 2024)
Search and explore nitrate content across various food categories
| Food category | Common food name | Mean ± SD (mg/kg) | Median [IQR] (mg/kg) | Range (mg/kg) | References* | Sample size# | Countries |
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Notes:
- Data in fresh weight (FW).
- Only foods (n = 353) with data derived from ≥ 3 references and the sample size of >1 were included.
- Animal foods were pooled (e.g. cheeses are grouped as soft, semi-soft and semi-hard/hard cheeses; "Dried meat strips or flat pieces (Biltong; Beef jerkey); Kabano; Meat floss (pork or yuk sung; Rousong); kolbasz; ciccioli" are combined as "Dried meat").
- Please see the combined food table.
- * Data extracted from databases was considered as ≥ 3 references.
- # Sample size was assigned as 1 where data source did not clearly present.
Cite this work
Zhong, L., Hodgson, J. M., Lewis, J. R., Blekkenhorst, L. C., Bondonno, N. P., Sim, M., Woodman, R. J., & Bondonno, C. P. (2025). Nitrate and nitrite food composition database: An update and extensive deep dive. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 121(5), 1124-1136. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajcnut.2025.01.031