# Illegal Nitrite Treatment of Red Tuna and Prolonged Storage: What About Other Food Safety Risks?
## 3 Results and Discussion
If compared  
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c c c c c} \hline \hline  & & \multicolumn{8}{c}{**Sampling 1**} \\ \hline  & & \multicolumn{8}{c}{**Residual Nitrites = 152.1 mg/kg: Aerobic Acid = 290.8 mg/kg Solifies = Absent**} \\ \hline  & **HIM** & **N Nitrites** & **N Nitrates** & **Trimethylamineamine** & **Cadaveine** & **Putrescine** & **Spermine** & **Spermididine** & **BAI** & **TVBN** \\  & **(mg/kg)** & **(mg/kg)** & **(mg/kg)** & **(mg/kg)** & **(mg/kg)** & **(mg/kg)** & **(mg/kg)** & **(mg/kg)** & **Index** & **(mg/100 g)** \\ \hline t\({}_{0}\) & 7.4 & 0 & 0 & 2.8 & 0 & 0 & 7.2 & 2.2 & 0.71 & 0 \\ u\({}_{\text{t}}\) treated & 6.9 & 180.0 & 15.0 & 3.6 & 0 & 0 & 4.7 & 1.2 & 1.00 & 0 \\ t\({}_{\text{tgg}}\) treated & 24.1 & 0 & 1.2 & 24.1 & 0 & 0 & 3.8 & 1.3 & 3.95 & 11.9 \\ t\({}_{\text{tgg}}\) treated & 10.4 & 152.1 & 76.0 & 2.4 & 0 & 0 & 5.1 & 1.8 & 1.32 & 10.9 \\ \hline \hline \multicolumn{8}{c}{**Sampling 2**} \\ \hline  & \multicolumn{8}{c}{**Residual Nitrites = 84.0 mg/kg: Aerobic Acid = 200.3 mg/kg: Solifies = Absent**} \\ \hline  & **HIM** & **N Nitrates** & **N Trimethylamineamine** & **Cadaveine** & **Putrescine** & **Spermine** & **Spermididine** & **BAI** & **TVBN** \\  & **(mg/kg)** & **(mg/kg)** & **(mg/kg)** & **(mg/kg)** & **(mg/kg)** & **(mg/kg)** & **(mg/kg)** & **Index** & **(mg/100 g)** \\ \hline t\({}_{0}\) & 0 & 5.6 & 0 & 7.1 & 0 & 0 & 0.3 & 0.4 & 0 & 0 \\ u\({}_{\text{t}}\) treated & 0 & 74.2 & 5.7 & 2.1 & 0 & 0 & 5.6 & 0.6 & 0 & 0 \\ t\({}_{\text{t}}\) target & 29.6 & 0 & 0 & 12.4 & 0 & 0 & 3.1 & 0 & 7.22 & 24.0 \\ t\({}_{\text{tgg}}\) treated & 15.9 & 84.0 & 10.9 & 36.5 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 15.9 & 20.7 \\ \hline \hline \multicolumn{8}{c}{**Sampling 3**} \\ \hline  & \multicolumn{8}{c}{**Residual Nitrites = 200.3 mg/kg: Aerobic Acid = 131.6 mg/kg Solifies = Absent**} \\ \hline  & \multicolumn{8}{c}{**Residual Nitrites = 200.3 mg/kg: Aerobic Acid = 131.6 mg/kg Solifies = Absent**} \\ \hline  & \multicolumn{8}{c}{**HIM**} & **N Nitrates** & **Trimethylamineamine** & **Cadaveine** & **Putrescine** & **Spermine** & **Spermididine** & **BAI** & **TVBN** \\  & **(mg/kg)** & **(mg/kg)** & **(mg/kg)** & **(mg/kg)** & **(mg/kg)** & **(mg/kg)** & **(mg/kg)** & **Index** & **(mg/100 g)** \\ \hline t\({}_{0}\) & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 9.1 & 7.9 & 0 & 0 \\ u\({}_{\text{t}}\) treated & 0 & 212.0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 10.5 & 1.1 & 0 & 0 \\ t\({}_{\text{to the available literature [5; 6], these levels are significantly higher; however, the official control activity reported concentrations well higher than those registered in this study. This result confirms the stabilizing effect of these additives against various microorganisms, including histaminogens, regardless of the residual level of nitrite (Table 1). Indeed, no significant differences in chemical and microbiological parameters were observed between treated and untreated samples in the first sampling, while the increases in histamine, trimethylamine, TVBN, and BAI, although small, are greater in the second sampling, where the residual nitrite concentration is lower. In this case, as shown in Table 1, there was an almost 16-fold increase in histamine and 21-fold increase in TVBN for the treated sample. This is also true for trimethylamine, and the BAI exceeds a value of 10 in this case. Graphically, this assessment is even more clearly evident: as shown in Figure 5, the increase in parameters, although small, was greatest where the residual nitrite concentration was the lowest. Figure 5: Evolution of chemical and microbiological parameters determined for fresh red tuna samples (not treated) and treated samples after 5 days of storage at 4 °C. Measurement units: mg/kg for chemical and log CFU/g for microbiological parameters. However, it must be said that the values of HIM, TVBN, and total microbial load found in the treated samples after 5 days of storage are still abundantly within the normal ranges and as such they do not constitute a health risk. The same trend can be observed for microbiological analysis (Table 2).