E941 - Nitrogen
What it is and how it is used
Nitrogen is the gas that makes up 78% of the air. As a food additive it is not there to do anything to the food — it is there to displace the oxygen that would otherwise spoil it.
Two uses dominate. As a packaging gas it flushes oxygen out of a bag of crisps or a pack of salad, which is why the bag is inflated and why the contents do not go rancid or brown. As a propellant it pushes product out of a can. It is also used as liquid nitrogen for flash-freezing, and dissolved under pressure in nitro coffee and nitro stouts, where its low solubility produces the fine, tight, creamy head that carbon dioxide cannot.
Foods commonly containing it
Modified-atmosphere packaging for crisps, salads, cooked meats, cheese and coffee; aerosol cream and other pressurised products; nitro coffee and nitrogenated beers and stouts; and flash-freezing as liquid nitrogen.
Safety summary
Nitrogen is authorised in Great Britain as E 941 and sits in Group I, permitted at quantum satis.
No numerical ADI has been assigned. Nitrogen is chemically inert at ordinary conditions, makes up most of every breath, and does not react with food or with the body — there is nothing for an ADI to limit.
The one real hazard is not dietary. Liquid nitrogen used for theatrical effects in drinks and desserts causes severe cold burns and internal injury if swallowed before it has fully evaporated, and has been the subject of UK food safety warnings. That is a handling issue in preparation, not a property of the packaging gas.