Sodium nitrite is widely used as a food additive in processed meats and fish products (Jørgen & Marianne, 2011) to prevent the growth of Clostridium botulinum, a major cause of food poisoning (lee et al., 2018). Moreover, sodium nitrites can regulate many physiological processes (Deng, 2006) and it has therapeutic applications for certain illnesses such as myocardial infarction (Webb et al., 2004) and hemorrhagic cerebral vasospasm (Pluta, Dejam, Grimes, Gladwin, & Oldfield, 2005). However, excessive sodium nitrite exerts a toxic effect through generation of free radicals, which causes oxidant/ antioxidant imbalance and results in detrimental biological effects (Jensen, 2007; Naik, Pilgaonkar, & Panda, 2006). For example, nitrite was shown to react with food amines in the stomach acidic media producing carcinogenic