by Allanah Leahy – EM TV World News
The World Health Organisation’s International Agency for Research on Cancer, or IARC, officially ruled red and processed meat as cancerous.
The review, set to be published today, reportedly classes processed meat, which includes bacon, ham and sausages, with the highest carcinogenic risk rating. But Professor Robert Pickard from the University of Cardiff, who is also a Meat Advisory Panel member, said carcinogens develop through the use of certain food preparation practices.
“The uncertainty is generated because of course you can treat meat in very different ways, for example if you are preserving it and adding a lot of smoke, then you can introduce carcinogens possibly in that process.”
Red meat was classed as the second-highest.
Stakeholders in the livestock sector are now worried at a drop in consumerism, following the official announcement.
Although some analysts believe it will have a limited impact, as people are already aware of not eating too much red meat.
“Red and processed meat is linked to cancer with scientific evidence, so it is not just something that has been suggested or that one report has said.
“Actually there is a lot of scientific evidence research to back up the fact that red and processed meat are linked with bowel cancer.
“So I would say that absolutely we want to pay attention to, we want to take note,” Charlotte Stirling-Reed, a London-based nutritionist, told Reuters.
