Fresh most cancers warning over British bacon as professional requires ban on key ingredient in processed meat – ‘hundreds of lives might be saved’

Thousands of lives could be saved by banning cancer-causing additives found in processed meats such as bacon and ham, a leading expert has said.

Professor Chris Elliott OBE, a former government food safety adviser, said clamping down on nitrates and nitrites could slash the rising number of bowel cancer cases in the UK.

The preservatives are added to processed meats to prevent bacteria from growing and to preserve their bright colour.

However, studies show they can form cancerous compounds in the gut, and they are said to be responsible for 5,400 bowel cancer cases every year. 

The warning comes as diagnoses are soaring among young Britons, with cases jumping by more than 50 per cent since the 1990s. The disease is responsible for 17,700 deaths annually – around 48 per day, or two every hour.

While the European Union (EU) has tightened limits on the additives, the UK’s Food Standards Agency (FSA) ruled last year that evidence linking nitrates and nitrites to cancer remained inconclusive. 

Now Prof Elliott, who is based at Queen’s University Belfast, has hit out at the FSA judgment, arguing that the body ignored key studies that demonstrated the harm of the compounds.

‘There is a very strong link between consumption of these chemicals in processed meats and bowel cancer,’ he said in a new BBC Panorama documentary investigating the rise in young-onset cancers, which will be broadcast tonight.

‘Key pieces of evidence I knew about weren’t even mentioned in the [FSA] report. They excluded every animal study on this subject. How can you do an evidence review and leave out most of the valuable information?’

Professor Elliott added that the EU was moving towards eliminating the additives from processed meats altogether.

‘Yet in the UK, we’ve got completely the opposite information coming from our regulator to say ‘there’s not enough evidence, we don’t need to do anything,” he continued. 

‘We’re talking about thousands of people’s lives here. The ultimate result will be more cases of bowel cancer, impacting the lives of those people and their whole families.’

It is not the first time that Prof Elliott has warned of the dangers of nitrates and nitrites.

He took part in a major analysis published last year that found the chemicals to be responsible for more than 50,000 bowel cancer cases in a decade.

The findings followed a pivotal 2015 report by the World Health Organisation that classed processed meat as a Group 1 carcinogen – the same as tobacco and asbestos.

Speaking last year, Prof Elliott 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.’

Prof Elliott and colleagues wrote to then-Health Secretary Wes Streeting, urging the introduction of front-of-pack warnings on nitrite-cured products to highlight the potential cancer risk to consumers.

However, Prof Elliott said in the new documentary that he never received a response.

A spokesman for the Department of Health and Social Care said it was the FSA’s responsibility to assess food safety, including the use of additives.

He added: ‘Separately, through our National Cancer Plan, we are working to ensure that the UK remains at the cutting edge of global research into the causes, diagnosis, and treatment of cancer, including for cases involving young people, and the scientific bodies leading that work are constantly exploring new evidence to that end.’

Ian Young, chief scientific adviser for the FSA, said the use of nitrite and nitrate additives in processed meat ‘are tightly regulated and subject to strict maximum legal safety limits’. 

‘We are clear that industry must use no more than necessary for food safety,’ he continued.

‘We understand people may have concerns about the safety of nitrites and nitrates, but health risks apply to red and processed meat overall, not specifically to the nitrates or nitrites used in processing.’

Prof Young said eating a diet rich in fibre and wholegrains can reduce the risk of bowel cancer, as can making ‘healthy lifestyle changes’.

‘People who want to reduce their nitrite intake can choose from a growing range of no-added-nitrite processed meat products, though it is important to note that these may still contain nitrites,’ he continued.

Prof Young said the FSA’s position is ‘based on the totality of the scientific evidence’ but advised that the ‘safest way to reduce any risk from red and processed meat is to eat less of it’.

The sharp rise in bowel cancer cases among under-50s in the UK has prompted the launch of a landmark trial by King’s College London. 

Scientists today said they are recruiting 250,000 participants to help investigate what is driving the increase in diagnoses among younger adults. 

The study will examine a range of factors, including diet, lifestyle, gut health and environmental exposures. 

Overall, there are around 50,000 new diagnoses of the disease every year in the UK.

While rates are rising among younger adults, bowel cancer remains far more common in older people, with around 2,900 of the yearly diagnoses occurring in under 50s.

As well as diet, known risk factors for bowel cancer include smoking, heavy alcohol consumption and diets low in fibre and calcium.