Processed meats cause cancer says World Health Organisation

“Scientific evidence shows cancer is a complex disease not caused by single foods and that a balanced diet and healthy lifestyle choices are essential to good health”, writes Barry Carpenter, president of the North American Meat Institute, in a statement on the new WHO classification.

The classifications are carried out by the WHO’s worldwide Agency for Research on Cancer. They’re part of the processed meat group, which has now been “classified as carcinogenic to humans, based on sufficient evidence in humans that the consumption of processed meat causes colorectal cancer”.

IARC researchers reviewed more than 800 studies looking at links between more than a dozen types of cancer and the consumption of red meat or processed meat in numerous countries with different diets.

In a highly anticipated report, it also says that red meats are “probably carcinogenic” but that evidence for this is limited.

The experts concluded that each 50 gram portion of processed meat eaten daily increases the risk of colorectal cancer by 18 per cent.

The Lancet paper points out that red meat also contains “high biological-value proteins and important micronutrients such as B vitamins, iron and zinc”.

Processed meat is meat that has been preserved or flavoured through processes such as salting, curing, fermentation or smoking. Red meat includes meats such as beef, veal, pork, lamb, mutton, horse and goat.

“Hot dog meat, bacon, ham, salami and pate all count as processed meats, but meatballs are red meat”, he explained.

The World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) has warned for several years that there is “strong evidence” that consuming a lot of red meat can cause bowel cancer while even small quantities of processed meats can increase cancer risk. The document was released with data from the WHO-operated and France-based global Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC).

For comparison, research on smoking and cancer found that men who smoked 25 cigarettes a day were 24 times higher risk of developing lung cancer, or a 2,400% increase.

Dr Christopher Wild, director of IARC, said: “These findings further support current public health recommendations to limit intake of meat”. He pointed out that “there is little or no evidence that vegetarians in the United Kingdom have a lower risk of bowel cancer than meat-eaters”.