I find the packaging that claims to have no added nitrates/nitrites to be so dishonest. The worst was one that said something like "no nitrates/nitrites added, only naturally-occurring". That made it sound like the only nitrates/nitrites are those that naturally occur in pork (is there any? I don't know!). But then when you look at the ingredients, there was some purified sea salt ingredient, which was where the stuff was coming from. It's not "naturally-occurring" if you have to distill it out of sea salt or celery juice.

I prefer the labels that just say "bacon" and don't claim to be preservative-free. If there is not any demonstrated (or even hypothetical) benefit to nitrates/nitrites being added from different sources ("natural" or otherwise), it should be considered deceptive advertising to make it seem like there is a difference (or that your product has none).

> "Every one I've seen includes "celery salt" which is just nitrates with a different name."

This is not allowed under EU and UK rules. You can't just add natural nitrites (like celery juice extract) and call it nitrite-free.

Here's the ingredients list for a popular brand of nitrite-free bacon in the UK: https://finnebrogue.com/products/naked-smoked-streaky-bacon-...

They explicitly state that they do not add any nitrites in any form: "We do not use any nitrites, whether from traditional sodium nitrite or nitrites derived from vegetable extracts like celery juice."