We are bitter. You are being duped with celery juice.

Farmer Aaron is figuring out how to continually and naturally produce his cured meat products like bacon, hams, pork sausages, beef sausages, and beef snacks without icky synthetic ingredients. 

Many people who produce USDA meat insist that you need to add nitrates and nitrites for safety. The big idea is to avoid the risk of botulism. And, yes, we definitely want to do that. 

Nitrates and nitrites are used to preserve meat. It’s the reason cured meat is pink or red. It adds a salty flavor. And, it also inhibits the growth of potentially harmful bacteria. 

On the flip side, nitrates and nitrites have been linked to an increased risk of cancer. Well, we definitely want to avoid that, too!

Nitrates are pretty inert. But, nitrites can convert into nitrosamines, and these can trigger cancer and other diseases. This is a big topic, and you can learn more about nitrites here.

So… what do “natural” and “organic” meat companies do? Well, they found a natural replacement for adding nitrates and nitrites - celery juice!

It sounds good, right? Celery is natural and is considered healthy. And, companies can slap a “no nitrates or nitrates added” label on their products, making consumers feel safe and educated. 

Here’s the kicker. Celery juice naturally contains nitrates and nitrites, sometimes in lesser and sometimes in greater amounts than the synthetic version.

(Oh, and by the way, the same is true for pink salt.)

It’s not shocking that the USDA would allow celery juice or pink salt as a natural replacement. What I’m blown away by again is the false advertising. How could a company put “no nitrates or nitrites added” on the label when they actually were? It’s very mis-leading. 

Why can’t we simply cure meat with plain old salt like we have for centuries? 

I get it. The risk of disease. With pepperoni or soppressata that’s eaten unheated, it makes sense. We want to avoid preventable disease. But, with something like bacon, ham, or sausage that’s handled properly and cooked all the way through, the risk of disease is basically none.

Please know that we can truly say that no nitrates or nitrites are added to our products - synthetic or natural. None. 

Farmer Aaron will continue to learn more about cured meats. There must be a path forward that meets both the farmer’s and the USDA’s standards. There must be a way to produce natural AND safe meat products.

We’ll be sure to keep you posted with any changes to our meat processing or ingredients.

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*Update 12/3/25: Since this blog post was written, we introduced a line of natural salami. Those do contain celery juice powder. But, our bacon and hams remain nitrate and nitrate free.