Health Zone: Processed, red meat causes cancer – WHO

The World Health Organization said Monday that eating all forms of red meat and processed meat such as pork, beef, hot dog, ham, sausages, corned beef, canned meat and meat-based preparations and sauces among others, carry a high risk of cancer.

The warning which came following an evaluation report by the International Agency for Research on Cancer , IARC, on the carcinogenicity of the consumption of red meat and processed meat, revealed that each 50g portion of processed meat eaten daily increases the risk of colorectal cancer by 18 percent.

The global health body is considering adding red and processed meats to its encyclopaedia of carcinogens, possibly leading to new government legislation demanding warning labels on packs of meat.

A Working Group of 22 experts from 10 countries thoroughly reviewed the accumulated scientific literature, convened by the IARC Monographs Programme, and classified the consumption of red meat as “probably carcinogenic” to humans, based on limited evidence that the consumption of red meat causes cancer in humans and strong mechanistic evidence supporting a carcinogenic effect.