Is grouse high in nitrites?

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Lead is the real issue with shot game birds. UK surveys have repeatedly found lead concentrations in game bird meat well above the maximum levels that apply to other meats, and the Food Standards Agency advises frequent eaters of lead-shot game, particularly children, pregnant women and women trying to conceive, to cut down. Picking out the visible pellets does not remove the fragments. / This is a frequency question rather than a one-meal question. There is no threshold below which lead is considered beneficial, so the advice is about how often game is on your table, not about whether a single grouse dinner is dangerous. / Steel and bismuth shot solve it, and some estates and retailers have moved to non-lead ammunition. It is worth asking, because it is the only variable here you can actually change. / The clean amine grade describes a fresh bird. Grouse is traditionally hung for days to develop its flavour, and hanging is precisely how any meat accumulates histamine and tyramine. If well-hung game bothers you and fresh game does not, you are describing amines rather than a species reaction. / The traditional plate carries more than the bird does. Grouse is served with bread sauce made from milk, onion and cloves, with bacon laid over the breast, game chips and a redcurrant or red wine gravy. That combination brings lactose, fructans, nitrites and sulfites to a meal whose main ingredient has none of them.