Celery extract contains a lot of nitrates and can be treated to produce nitrites as well [1]. The reason they use celery is to exploit a loophole in food labelling laws and avoid usage of the word nitrates due to their association with health risks.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celery_powder

If you read closely the ingredients don't list celery, they list "celery seed extract". They're extracting the nitrates, it's just a ploy to avoid having to list nitrates in the ingredients but still use it. Next to the statement saying "No added nitrates!" there will be a tiny asterisk adding "except those naturally present (and extracted and concentrated) in celery seeds."

Similar trick with "no sugar added" in juices, but you can take grape or apple juice, evaporate a lot of the water till it forms a syrup, then add that syrup to juices and still be able to sell the result as "100% pure fruit juice, no sugar added".

No, adding concentrated juice definitely violates "no added sugar" labelling standards, at least as far as the FDA and Health Canada are concerned for sure. I assume in Europe as well.

Some juices are just naturally very high in sugar.

I just listened to a podcast episode about this, basically celery cured just means “naturally found” nitrites… which are the same thing as artificial nitrites… they’re just nitrites. (Disclaimer: not a chemist)

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/stuff-you-should-know/...

Well thats disappointing

I always found it intriguing that some people can have the discipline to make big changes to their day to day routine based on some learned trivia, but don't have the discipline to actually learn the subject.

That's pretty uncharitable. Celery juice is used specifically because it's confusing and misleading - you shouldn't have to have a scientific degree to decode a nutrition label, but here we are.

Ah, the old, "I've sworn off carbs. I might give up sugar too at some point, but one thing at a time," said while eating falafel.

"Beans can't have protein. That doesn't make any sense. Protein is what meat has."

I have spoken to two different people with no connection between them who thought that beans had no carbs and no protein, they were "different," because carbs were grain things and protein was meat. I wouldn't normally judge people for ignorance, but both of those people used the terms "carb" and "protein" while expressing extensive and very strongly held beliefs about nutrition. They are not much different from anti-vaxxers in my book.

You got the point.

some dired hams don't contain any nitrites. I know parma ham doesn't, for example

Yeah, genuine prosciutto is just salt and time.

And piggy

Well, yes. Heh.

Why are you avoiding nitrites? As far as I can tell they are inert and safe.