Scientists are calling for cigarette-style cancer warnings on bacon and ham sold in the UK, warning that chemicals used to cure the meats are linked to bowel cancer.
Their demand comes a decade after the World Health Organization (WHO) classified processed meat as carcinogenic to humans, in the same category as tobacco and asbestos. Despite this, experts say successive governments have done “virtually nothing” to reduce the risk from nitrites — preservatives added to bacon and ham for flavour, colour, and longer shelf life.
Researchers claim that since the WHO’s 2015 warning, about 54,000 Britons have developed bowel cancer, costing the NHS around £3bn.
In a letter to health secretary Wes Streeting, members of the Coalition Against Nitrites, including several scientists behind the original WHO findings, urged mandatory warning labels on products and a gradual phase-out of nitrites from processed meat.
“Most people don’t realise that nitrite-cured meats like bacon and ham are in the same carcinogenic category as tobacco and asbestos,” said Prof Denis Corpet of Toulouse University. “Ministers must act to protect public health.”
The WHO has estimated that eating 50 grams of processed meat daily — roughly two rashers of bacon — increases the risk of bowel cancer by 18%.
While the World Cancer Research Fund confirmed that the evidence linking processed meat to cancer is “clear,” it stopped short of supporting warning labels, instead urging the government to promote healthier diets and reduce processed meat consumption in public institutions.
Prof Chris Elliott, a food safety expert and signatory of the letter, said: “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 responded that the Food Standards Agency considers the evidence linking nitrites and cancer “inconclusive.”
