The analysed content of vitamin C in the five sausage types var-
ied between 11 and 40 mg/100 g of sausage (Table 1). These find-
ings are explained by the addition of vitamin C as an antioxidant
additive by the manufacturer mainly to preserve colour. Vitamin
C is widely used as a colour retention agent in various processed
meat products (Ahn & Nam, 2004; The Codex Alimentarius Com-
mission, 2007). Authorisation and use of food additives in food-
stuffs are harmonised at European level (The European Union,
2007), and food additives are stated on the package label by an E
number and/or by the additive’s chemical name. From the package
labels of the sausages included in the present study it was evident
that vitamin C and/or ascorbate in the form of the E numbers E300
(ascorbic acid) or E301 (sodium ascorbate) had been added to all
the analysed sausages. The manufacturer of the sausages included
in the project informed that they added 0.042% vitamin C to their
sausages, equaling 42 mg vitamin C/100 g sausage. These amounts
correspond quite well to the vitamin C levels analysed in the sau-
sages in the present study except for the low-fat grill sausage for
which the analysed value was lower than for the other sausages.
According to the manufacturer, the same amount of vitamin C
was added to all of the analysed sausages. However, because of
the very small amount of vitamin C compared to the total amount
of sausage meat, the added vitamin C might not be completely
evenly distributed in all of the sausage meat. Recently produced
sausages may also be likely to retain more of the added vitamin
C than sausages closer to the expiration date. The expiration date
was by the manufacturer set to 31 or 32 days after the production
date for all of the sausages. As shown in Table 2, the low-fat grill
sausage had fewer remaining days before the expiration date at
the time of purchase than the other sausages. This difference was
statistically significant for the regular grill sausages and for the
smoked meat sausages. Hence, the vitamin C content of the sau-
sages may have been influenced by how recently the sausages
were produced, but this will need further investigation.