How does Nitrate get into farm products?
Nitrogen ingredient in chemical fertilizers turns into nitrate in the soil, and the nitrate is absorbed into farm plants. Nitrate is reduced in a farm plant to amino acid, protein, nucleic acid, etc. for plant growth. Much and continued application of nitrogen-rich chemical fertilizers, especially for leaf vegetables, results in a high content of unreduced nitrate in farm products. Cultivation of leaf vegetables mainly with compost results in a low content of nitrate in farm products.

What is Nitrate for us?
Nitrate is used as a color former in processed foods such as ham, sausage, and fish/meat foods which may change color when exposed to oxygen. Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI) of Nitrate that WHO (World Health Organization) and FAO (Food Agricultural Organization of the United Nations) stipulates as not affecting human health is 185 mg. Nitrate, when taken into the human body, is dissolved into amino acids, which are resynthesized into protein. Nitrate turns into nitrite in the human body, and nitrite gets combined with an amine contained in the meat or fish in the stomach into carcinogenic nitrosamine. Too much intake of Nitrate may result in blue baby, atopy dermatitis, and cancer.

Stevia Substantially Reduces Nitrate in Farm Products
There have been many reports and analysis on substantial reduction in nitrate content in various vegetables which were cultivated with application of Stevia agro-materials. Recently, two scientific papers were published and presented in a congress. One is titled as “Effects of Foliar Dressing and Soil Application of Stevia Agricultural Materials on Nitrate of Chinese Mustard” published in an agricultural journal in March 2003 by Hyogo Prefectural Technology Center for Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Japan. The other was presented under the title of “Separation, Identification and Characterization of the Nitrate-Reducing Bacteria from Stevia Powder” in Japanese Society of Crop Science held in March 2004 in Tokyo by Fukuoka Junior College of Agriculture, Japan. (For further details, please email to JBB Stevia Laboratory, Ltd.)