A reference for curing meat
The parameters, with the citation.
Curing meat is one of the few things done in a kitchen where getting it wrong can kill somebody. A drying salami is an anaerobic, low-acid mass at room temperature, which is the environment Clostridium botulinum is defined by. The numbers that make that survivable are published, by USDA and by the European Commission, and almost nobody has assembled them into something usable. That is what this is.
What is here
- Protected products
- 407
- Permitted ingredients
- 192
- Standards of identity
- 57
- Composition records
- 360
- Countries
- 29
- Calculators
- 7
Sources: eAmbrosia, the EU geographical indications register; Electronic Code of Federal Regulations (eCFR), Title 9; USDA FoodData Central. Retrieved 2026-09-04. Full list on methodology.
The three numbers people come for
| Question | Answer | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Maximum ingoing sodium nitrite, chopped or comminuted meat | 156.25 ppm | 9 CFR 424.21(c), derived |
| Water activity for shelf stability, product stored in air | 0.85 | FSIS-GD-2014-0010 |
| Minimum weight loss, dry cured ham | 18 % | 9 CFR 319.106(b)(7) |
The first of those is derived rather than transcribed: the regulation says a quarter of an ounce to a hundred pounds, and the ounce and the pound are exactly defined, so the conversion is exact and the working is on the calculator page.
Calculators
9 CFR 424.21 and 424.22
Ingoing nitrite
Parts per million of sodium nitrite going into the meat, from the mass of cure mixture, its stated nitrite content and the gree...
Equilibrium cure and equilibrium brine
Salt percentage
How much salt to weigh out for a target percentage, dry or in a brine, and what strength that brine starts at.
FSIS formula
Brine concentration
The FSIS measure of how salty the water in a product is, which is the number the S. aureus and dry-cured ham thresholds are sta...
9 CFR 319.106(b)(7)
Dry-curing weight loss
Percentage lost against the green weight, and the weight a piece has to reach for a stated target.
FSIS-GD-2014-0010
Water activity and shelf stability
Which published shelf-stability limit a given water activity and pH meets, and the moisture-protein ratio alongside it.
FSIS-GD-2023-0002
Degree-hours
Hours above 60 F multiplied by the degrees above it, accumulated until the product reaches pH 5.3, which is the accounting FSIS...
Safety
The editorial position
This site never says a preparation is safe. It reports what the standard requires and lets the number speak. Where a source publishes a figure, the figure is here with its citation. Where no source publishes one - the maximum degree-hours, for instance - the page says so rather than repeating a number it cannot stand behind.
Botulism
Clostridium botulinum
A spore-forming organism that grows without oxygen, in low-acid food, at ambient temperature, and produces a neurotoxin as it does.
Staphylococcal enterotoxin
Staphylococcus aureus
Grows at a lower water activity than the other pathogens, and produces a heat-stable toxin. Cooking the product afterwards does not remove the toxin.
Listeriosis
Listeria monocytogenes
Grows at refrigeration temperature. Recontaminates ready-to-eat product after the lethality step, from surfaces and hands.
Salmonellosis, haemolytic uraemic syndrome
Salmonella and shiga-toxin producing E. coli
Present on raw meat. Tolerates drying and adapts to acid, so neither fermentation nor drying reliably removes it.
All seven hazards, and the Trichinella tables
Products
407 names sit in the EU register of geographical indications under the two meat classes. Each one is a legal definition: a filed specification that says what the product is, where it may be made and how. France holds the most, with 107.
All 407 protected names / by country / 38 product classes
Methods
6 published parameters
Dry curing
Salt and curing salts applied to the surface of a whole muscle, which then equalises and dries.
2 published parameters
Equilibrium curing
The cure is weighed as a percentage of the meat, and all of it is used, so the finished concentration is the dose.
2 published parameters
Immersion brining
The meat sits in a salt solution until the two equalise, or until a chosen time is up.
4 published parameters
Injection and pumping
Brine is pumped into the muscle rather than allowed to diffuse in.
4 published parameters
Fermentation with starter cultures
Lactic acid bacteria acidify the meat, and where staphylococci are included they develop colour and flavour.
4 published parameters
Air drying
Water leaves the product until its water activity is low enough that nothing grows.
Product classes
- Bacon
- Basturma
- Biltong
- Blood sausage
- Bologna
- Braunschweiger
- Bresaola
- Capocollo
- Chorizo
- Coppa
- Corned beef
- Country ham
- Culatello
- Cured pork loin
Every figure on this site traces to a named dataset with a retrieval date, shown on the page it appears on. Nothing is taken from memory. Where a source could not be obtained, the gap is recorded on corrections rather than filled in.