Scientists demand cancer warnings on bacon and ham sold in UK | Cancer
Bacon and ham sold in the UK should carry cigarette-style labels warning that chemicals they contain cause bowel cancer, scientists say.
Their demand comes as they criticize successive UK governments for doing “virtually nothing” to reduce the risk from nitrites in the decade since they were definitively found to cause cancer.
Saturday marks a decade since the World Health Organization in October 2015 declared processed meat a human carcinogen, putting it in the same category as tobacco and asbestos.
Nitrites are chemicals that are added to bacon and ham during processing to refine, preserve and give them their pink color, despite the scientific evidence gathered that they are harmful.
“Inaction” to curb the use of these compounds in the UK since the WHO declaration has led to 54,000 Britons developing bowel cancer, costing the NHS £3bn, experts say.
Four of the scientists behind the processed meat warning issued by the WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), and other experts, have written to Wes Streeting, the Health Secretary, urging him to take bold action to reduce the danger posed by nitrites, in a letter organized by the Nitrite Coalition.
Streeting should require 90 to 95% of bacon and ham packets sold in Britain that contain chemicals – some brands are nitrite-free – to display such warnings and order food producers to phase out processed meat production over the next few years, they say.
“Consumers deserve clear information. Most people don’t realize that the WHO classifies nitrite-cured meats like bacon and ham in the same carcinogenic category as tobacco and asbestos,” said Denis Corpet, professor emeritus of food safety and nutrition at the University of Toulouse and one of the four scientists.
“Ministers have a responsibility to protect public health and reduce the risk of bowel cancer linked to these products and should therefore introduce mandatory warning labels on product packaging, similar to ‘smoking kills’ on cigarettes. »
The IARC said in 2015: “An analysis of data from 10 studies estimated that each 50 gram serving of processed meat consumed daily increases the risk of colorectal diseases. [bowel] cancer by about 18%.
The World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF), which evaluates the evidence for prevention and treatment of the disease, said there was no doubt that processed meat put people at greater risk.
“There is clear evidence that eating processed meat increases the risk of colorectal cancer,” said Kate Oldridge-Turner, the association’s head of policy and public affairs.
“This occurs through a complex set of reactions occurring in the body when processed meat is consumed, including nitrites added during processing which form cancer-causing chemicals.”
She did not support scientists’ call for warning labels. But she advised that “food guidelines and standards should reinforce the limited consumption of all types of processed meat and that steps should be taken to increase the availability of healthy foods, particularly in public places such as schools.”
Professor Chris Elliott, a former government food safety adviser and another signatory to the letter, said: “A decade after the WHO report, the UK government has done virtually nothing to reduce exposure to nitrites, the hardening agents that make these products pink and durable, but which also create nitrosamines, compounds known to trigger cancer.
“Every year of delay means more preventable cancers, more families affected and increased pressure on the NHS. »
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “The Food Standards Agency has made it clear that the link between nitrates and nitrites and cancer remains inconclusive. »
