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A warning has been issued to UK households buying bacon and ham - as s cientists demand action. Scientists are demanding cancer warnings on bacon and ham sold in the UK. Successive Conservative Party and Labour Party governments are being criticised for doing ‘virtually nothing’ to reduce risk in the decade since a cancer link was found. Nitrites are chemicals that are added to bacon and ham during processing to cure and preserve them and give them their pink colour, despite gathering scientific evidence that they are harmful. READ MORE Thousands of Blue Badge holders issued update over free bus travel “Consumers deserve clear information. Most people don’t realise that the WHO classifies nitrite-cured meats like bacon and ham in the same carcinogenic category as tobacco and asbestos,” said Denis Corpet, an emeritus professor of food safety and nutrition at Toulouse University 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 so should introduce mandatory warning labels on product packaging similar to ‘smoking kills’ on cigarettes.” The IARC said in 2015 that: “An analysis of data from 10 studies estimated that every 50 gram portion of processed meat eaten daily increases the risk of colorectal [bowel] cancer by about 18%.” “There is clear evidence that consuming processed meat increases the risk of colorectal cancer,” said Kate Oldridge-Turner, the charity’s head of policy and public affairs. “This is through a complex set of reactions occurring in the body when processed meat is eaten, including the nitrites added during processing forming carcinogenic chemicals.” Prof Chris Elliott, a former government adviser on food safety and another of the letter’s signatories, said: “A decade on from the WHO report, the UK government has done virtually nothing to reduce exposure to nitrites, the curing agents that make these products pink and long-lasting but also create nitrosamines, compounds known to trigger cancer. “Every year of delay means more preventable cancers, more families affected and greater strain on the NHS .” A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “The Food Standards Agency have made clear that the link between nitrates and nitrites and cancer remains inconclusive.”
