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ventricina is a ripe sausage made from pork meat and abundantly spiced with sweet and hot chilli pepper .
the origin of ventricina term derives from the custom of filling in pig stomach ( ventricle ) .
the meat is cut into cubes of about 2 - 7 cm . in the mixture salt ( 2.5% w / w ) , sweet and hot chilli pepper ( 1.5% w / w ) ( capsicum annuum l. var .
is positioned between fermented sausages and cured meats made from entire anatomical parts ( amadoro et al . , 2011 ) .
according to tradition , the ripening process is carried out in household locals or in plug - in showcase cabinets for salami with temperature and humidity system control . in the cabinets the temperature values range between 18c at the beginning and 12c at the end of the process .
humidity ranges from an initial value of 85% to a final value of 75% ( piccirilli and colavita , 2008 ; amadoro et al . , 2011 ) . ripening and aging processes are slow ( 5 - 12 months ) .
moreover , the product ecosystem is characterised by microbial populations spontaneously selected and mainly constituted by lactic acid bacteria and coagulase negative cocci ( cnc ) . as provided by law , in fermented meat products nitrates and/or nitrites
, the addition of these additives can cause the formation of nitrosamines , i.e. substances with carcinogenic properties . according to the european food safety authority ( 2003 ) ,
it is the maximum addition dose and not the maximum remaining dose that contributes to the inhibitory activity against c. botulinum .
the european union provided a maximum allowed dose of 150 mg / kg both for nitrites and nitrates to limit the content of nitrosamines , restating the need to use them to manage the risk related to c. botulinum ( directive ec 2006/52 ; european commission , 2006 ) .
nitrites exert an intrinsic antimicrobial activity in synergy with the sodium chloride . on the contrary
, nitrates do not possess a direct antibacterial activity , but are transformed into nitrites by pro - technological microbial populations , mainly represented by cnc ( duncan et al .
, 1997 ; cammack et al . , 1999 ; colavita , 2005 ) . similarly to other vegetables , pepper plant ( capsicum annuum l. ) uses nitrates of the soil that accumulates in variable amounts depending on the cultivar of cultivation system .
furthermore , it contains high amounts of ascorbic acid , polyphenols , in particular flavonoids ( quercetin and luteolin ) , oxygenated carotenoids ( --carotene , -cryptoxanthin and xanthophylls ) ( lee et al . , 1995 ; hasler and clare , 1998 ; howard et al . , 2000 ) . during the preparation of ventricina
for this reason , it is supposed that nitrates and nitrites in this spice can achieve an adequate concentration to carry out a sufficient antimicrobial activity to inhibit c. botulinum . therefore , the aim of this study was to detect the levels of nitrates and nitrites supplied in ventricina sausages by a local cultivar of chilli pepper produced with two different agronomic regimes .
at the same time , it was investigated whether the addiction of chilli pepper could lead to exceeded the maximum allowed amount of sodium nitrate when this was added .
a cultivar of traditional chilli pepper of abruzzi area has been cultivated ( paesanello di altino ) according to two agronomics regimes : traditional ( a ) and organic ( b ) .
three samples of chilli pepper a and b were collected and analysed for the determination of nitrates and nitrites content .
furthermore , for knowledge and comparison purposes , nitrates and nitrites concentrations were determined also on 18 samples of commercial chilli powder and on 3 samples of sea salt used in dressing .
the experimental protocol established the production of ventricina in an artisanal production plant , according to the traditional method ( piccirilli and colavita , 2008 ) .
organic chilli pepper powder of altino ( b ) ( table 1 ) was used for spicing meat .
the batch was divided in two portions : one with and the other without addition of sodium nitrate ( 150 mg / kg ) .
the ripening temperature was 18c , the first week , and 12c the remaining period .
humidity values ranged between 84.0 and 85.0% the first thirty days , and 74.0 to 75.0% the remaining ripening period .
the determination of nitrates and nitrites was carried out after filling ( t0 ) and after 50 days ( t50 ) . at t0 and t50 , 8 samples for each batch
five grams of sample were weighed , then extracted with 100 ml of boiling ultrapure water and diluted 1:10 in ultrapure water .
the diluted samples were filtered with pvdf disposable filters of 0.45 m porosity and injected into high performance ion chromatography using an anion exchange column ( as9hc , 250x4 mm ; dionex corporation , waltham , ma , usa ) .
sodium carbonate 9 mm was used as mobile phase with 1 ml / min flow rate in an isocratic run .
after passage through an anion suppressor ( ultra - srs self - regenerating suppressor 4 mm ; dionex ) , nitrates were detected with a conductivity detector .
statistical data processing was performed using student s t test and values were considered significantly different for p<0.05 .
table 1 shows that organic agronomic regime ( b ) caused a higher nitrate concentration ( 531.094.6 mg / kg ) if compared to the traditional system ( a ) ( 394.039.6 mg / kg ) , although data were not statistically significant ( p>0.05 ) .
nitrites were below the analytical detection limit ( 5.0 mg / kg ) in all samples of chilli pepper and of sea salt analysed .
moreover , in samples of commercial chilli , the nitrate concentration was very variable ( 325.0115.8 mg / kg ) and significantly lower ( p<0.05 ) compared to that observed in paesanello di altino ( b ) .
table 2 shows that in ventricina sausages without nitrates , their values did not exceed the threshold of analytical detectability ( 5.0 mg / kg ) .
however , in ventricina samples with sodium nitrate added , an average quantity of nitrates at t0 of 13420.9 mg / kg was detect , whereas nitrites have never been found ( 5.0 mg / kg ) at t0 , while after 50 days of ripening values of nitrates and nitrites were 129.015.4 and 28.815.8 mg / kg , respectively .
biological farming has led to a greater concentration of nitrates in the pepper studied , but the difference with traditional method of cultivation was not significant .
chilli samples used to spice ventricina sausages in this study showed high values of sodium nitrate if compared with the commercial one and with that studied by yordanov et al .
moreover , the maximum dose added ( 150 mg / kg ) in batch of ventricina sausages with sodium nitrate was never exceeded . after 50 days of ripening ( t50 ) , a low concentration of sodium nitrite
this is due , presumably , to a low nitrate - reductase activity of cnc , which , as it is known , characterises ripened non - minced sausages , with slow maturation and low acidity , such as ventricina ( amadoro et al . , 2013 ) .
in this study the content of nitrates in the organic chilli pepper used to spice ventricina salami was lower than that observed in other vegetables like lettuce , spinach , potatoes , etc .
2010 ) . nevertheless , it was higher than that reported by yordanov et al .
( 2001 ) , who , however , observed differences in the content of nitrates between home - grown chilli ( 10.1 mg / kg ) and commercial paprika ( 38.1 mg / kg ) .
the content of nitrates in the organic chilli pepper was higher than that observed in samples obtained by the traditional cultivation method .
nonetheless , the content of nitrates and nitrites was irrelevant in ventricina where it was added . therefore , the results of this study showed that the addition of high amounts of organic chilli pepper has no influence on the concentration of nitrates and nitrites in sausages .
it can also be inferred that the preserving activity of chilli pepper can be due to i ) the high content of sodium ascorbate ( isoascorbic sodium / sodium erythorbate ) , which has a strong activity in preventing the oxidative processes and setting the colour ( european journal of food safety authority , 2003 ) , and ii ) compounds with antimicrobial activity like capsaicinoids ( paleari et al . , 1989 ;
ventricina is a traditional sausage made from pork meat produced in the abruzzi and molise regions . 
 the aim of this study was to detect the content of nitrates and nitrites in local cultivars of chilli pepper , and their concentration in ventricina samples spiced with the same chilli pepper . 
 furthermore , it was examined whether , in the samples of ventricina with nitrate addition , the spicing with chilli pepper could exceed the maximum added dose . 
 the concentration of nitrates and nitrites in the organic chilli pepper was 531.094.6 mg / kg and less than 5.0 mg , respectively , in the traditional chilli pepper it was 394.039.6 and less than 5.0 mg , while in the commercial it was 325.0115.0 and less than 5.0 mg . 
 the determination of nitrites and nitrates was carried out by high performance ion chromatography . in ventricina samples produced without added sodium nitrate , 
 nitrates and nitrites were below 5.0 mg / kg at the case - filling time ( t0 ) and after 50 days of aging ( t50 ) . 
 in the samples of ventricina with added sodium nitrate , nitrate concentration values were 134.020.9 mg / kg at t0 and 129.015.4 mg / kg at t50 , while the nitrites were below 5.0 mg / kg at t0 and 28.815.8 mg / kg at t50 . 
 although in ventricina the amount of chilli pepper is quite relevant , it did not lead to a detectable concentration of nitrates . 
 the maximum allowed amount was never exceeded .