sodium nitrite

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun chemistry The sodium salt of nitrous acid, NaNO2; used as a food preservative and in many industrial applications.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun nitrite used to preserve and color food especially in meat and fish products; implicated in the formation of suspected carcinogens