Food preservatives (general topic)

I cannot answer your question with certainty, but my family in Calabria bragged to me that they either made or grew almost everything they consumed. Additionally, they told me the other things they ate were made without preservatives. Freshness is one of the hallmarks of Italian cuisine. We've been traveling in Italy for 33 years and never have had a problem other that overeating. Buon viaggio,

Some Americans I know asked the same question in broken Italian. The person responded that in Italy you will not find any foods with "preservativi" inside -:)

For prosciutto made under the several protected designations (Prosciutto de Parma for example) they use only sea salt, but it would not be uncommon in many other cured meats to find nitrates being used. It has been used as a natural preservative for centuries.

Nitrites and Nitrates might be "natural" but they are known to cause cancer and they can trigger migraine headaches.

Susan, precisely why I brought up the subject :-)

Roberto, you kill me!

For those who do not speak Italian... un preservativo is a condom. (Hence Roberto's little joke.)
Food additives are sometimes called conservativi or more properly conservante alimentari. More to the point, they are rarely used here. Vegetables and fruits are not "gassed" or polished like in the States. Things actually spoil here: you don't want to buy fresh food too far in advance. I believe true prosciutto sold in a salumeria will be preserved only with salt.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosciutto#Manufacture DOP/DOC will not have nitrates. Others will. That goes for all salumi.