Call for warnings over risks from ham and bacon
A SENIOR food scientist and top NHS doctor have joined politicians from across Parliament to demand action on the cancer risk from processed meats like bacon and ham.
In a joint statement, they called for government action to raise awareness in a similar way to campaigns on the health dangers from sugar and fatty foods.
They cited ‘a growing consensus of scientific opinion’ that nitrites in processed meats result in the production of carcinogenic nitrosamines which are believed to be responsible for bowel cancer.
A 2015 report by the World Health Organisation classed processed meats as a group one carcinogen which could cause an additional 34,000 worldwide cancer deaths a year. New analysis suggests that this could equate to 6,600 bowel cancer cases in the UK annually.
Director of the Queen’s University Belfast Institute for Global Food Safety Professor Chris Elliott, senior cardiologist Aseem Malhotra and leading nutritionist Chris Gill of the University of Ulster were joined by politicians including Labour’s deputy leader Tom Watson in making a call for action.
They said: “We are concerned that not enough is being done to raise awareness of nitrites in our processed meat and their health risks, in stark contrast to warnings regularly issued regarding sugar and fattening foods.
“A united and active front is needed from policy-makers, the food industry and the cancercare community.
“We must work together to raise awareness of their risks and encourage the much wider use of nitrite-free alternatives.”
Dr Malhotra said the failure to act on evidence of the harm from nitrites risked comparisons with the tobacco industry’s past refusal to accept the dangers posed by cigarettes.