ppm safety checker

Already mixed it? Enter what you weighed out. This tells you the nitrite and nitrate you actually delivered, and whether it's inside the USDA limit.

This is a calculator, not a tested recipe. It checks arithmetic against a legal limit; it can't check your scale, your label or your process. When in doubt, follow an established recipe from a trusted source.

How was it cured?

Mixed into ground meat Rubbed on whole muscle Equilibrium brine Injected / pumped brine

This is bacon Lower nitrite limit, no nitrate allowed

Meat weight Green weight, before curing

What you used, in grams⁴

Cure #1 6.25% nitrite

Cure #2 6.25% nitrite, 4% nitrate

Other cure

Other cure, grams

Other: sodium nitrite %

Other: sodium nitrate %

Pure sodium nitrite

Pure sodium nitrate

Saltpeter (potassium nitrate)³

Salt added Optional — reports salt %

Why this matters

Most curing mistakes are arithmetic: a teaspoon instead of a gram, a recipe scaled for the wrong weight, the cure counted per kilo of brine instead of per kilo of meat. Nitrite is safe at the right dose and toxic well above it, so if you're not sure, check before you stuff, hang or brine — not after.

Notes

Limits (ingoing, as sodium nitrite / sodium nitrate, on green weight): ground 156.25 / 1,718.75 ppm; dry-rubbed whole muscle 625 / 2,187.5 ppm; immersion or pumped 200 / 700 ppm (9 CFR 424.21(c); USDA FSIS Processing Inspectors' Calculations Handbook, 1995). Bacon: 120 ppm pumped or immersion, 200 ppm dry-cured, no nitrate (9 CFR 424.22(b)). The low-side warning is the FSIS 120 ppm minimum for cured "Keep Refrigerated" products.
Equilibrium brine: ppm is calculated on meat + water, which is what the meat holds once everything has evened out. If you pulled the meat before equilibrium, the outside will carry more than the center. Pumped: uses the FSIS formula, % pump × % agent in the brine.
Saltpeter is counted against the nitrate limit gram for gram, the way the regulation lists "sodium or potassium nitrate". By weight it carries less nitrate than sodium nitrate (61% vs 73% nitrate ion, from IUPAC molar masses), so this over-reads slightly — the safe direction. The molar sodium-nitrate equivalent is shown too.
Spoons aren't grams. Cure density varies with grind and packing, so we don't convert volumes. If you measured with a spoon, fill the same spoon the same way and weigh it. Tender Quick's preset (0.5% nitrite, 0.5% nitrate) is from Morton's published label — confirm against yours.
Over the limit on ground meat that isn't stuffed yet: mixing in more uncured meat brings the dose down, and the result shows how much. For whole muscle, brined or already-stuffed product, there's no reliable fix — discard it.