Food Standards Agency bosses have insisted there is “no evidence” removing nitrates from processed meat reduces the risk of cancer, despite claims from leading professors that the ingredients should be deemed as deadly as cigarettes.
The agency is sticking to its position after showdown talks with the authors of a landmark WHO report ended in deadlock yesterday.
The Grocer can reveal FSA chair Susan Jebb and other leading food safety figures met the group this week, also including the UK’s former food safety advisor and horsemeat probe tsar, professor Chris Elliott.
The meeting came after the experts on Friday published a letter sent to health secretary Wes Streeting claiming more than 50,000 Brits have suffered from bowel cancer because of the government’s failure to act on the warning of the 2015 WHO report they wrote on the dangers of the ingredients, accusing successive governments of a “dereliction of duty”.
It is understood at the meeting yesterday the health experts tore into the FSA and UK government’s lack of action to tackle the risks highlighted in their report 10 years ago, as well as more recent evidence. They expressed anger over what they claimed was a much less comprehensive evidence review being used to play down the risks of nitrites by the FSA earlier this month.
The FSA and the UK government has maintained that the current levels of nitrites used in food processing are safe, despite what the authors claim is “overwhelming” scientific evidence and recent regulatory changes in the European Union.
The FSA also claims nitrites are ‘essential’ to protect against botulism, despite revelations of an internal report written for the British meat industry in 2019 revealing no case of botulism had been found in any nitrite-free product.
The study, conducted for the BMPA, was commissioned, according to the Observer at the time, to provide evidence that nitrites were essential to protect consumers from food poisoning such as botulism,
It’s understood at yesterday’s meeting the WHO authors also expressed anger over a blog published earlier this month by the FSA. The post was based upon a literature review carried out by the consultancy RSM, which they claimed ignored many recent pieces of evidence due to “time constraints”.
Nitrite-free products are now on sale in most UK supermarkets, as well as in France and many other European countries.
However, in a statement to The Grocer today, Professor Rick Mumford, acting chief scientific advisor for the FSA, insisted it was sticking to its position that there was “no evidence” that removing nitrates or nitrites made processed meat safer.
“There is clear evidence, including from the World Health Organization, that eating too much processed meat increases the risk of bowel cancer and other illnesses,” he said.
“This is why the NHS advises that people who eat more than 90g of red or processed meat a day should cut down to no more than 70g. The FSA fully supports this advice.
“The increased health risks apply to processed meat overall, not specifically to nitrates or nitrites used in processing. The exact cause of these risks remains unclear and is likely very complex, potentially also relating to cooking methods or other factors involved in meat processing. There is no evidence that removing nitrates or nitrites makes processed meat safer.
“Our advice is simple: to reduce health risks, it’s best to limit your consumption of all processed meats.”
Writing for The Grocer last week, Elliott called on ministers to bring in measures including front-of-pack cancer warnings on nitrite-cured products as well as measures to support SMEs to adopt safer technologies.
He also called on the government to bracket processed meats such as bacon and ham alongside categories such as tobacco and asbestos.
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