Nitrites in bacon: MPs and scientists call for UK ban over cancer fears

theguardian.com:

Leading food scientists and a cross-party group of MPs and peers are urging UK ministers to ban the use of chemicals in bacon that heighten the risk of several forms of cancer.

They want the government to tell the pork industry to phase out the use of nitrites, which are used to cure bacon and give it its distinctive pink colour as a way of protecting public health.

The initiative is being led by the Conservative MP Dr Daniel Poulter, a former health minister under David Cameron who is also a practising NHS doctor.

About 90% of bacon sold in Britain is thought to contain nitrites, which research studies have linked to the development of bowel, breast and prostate cancers.

Poulter, the Labour MP Rosie Cooper, the SNP health spokesperson, Martyn Day, and the Liberal Democrat peer Lady Walmsley are among the signatories of a letter to Steve Barclay, the new health secretary, and Prof Sir Chris Whitty, the government’s chief medical officer, about nitrites.

The move is also being supported by Prof Chris Elliott, the director of the Institute for Global Food Safety at Queen’s university in Belfast, who led the government’s investigation into the horsemeat scandal, and Prof Denis Corpet, an expert on the links between nitrites and cancer.

They want meat producers instead to use more natural alternatives to nitrites that perform the same role during curing.

Elliott said: “Nitrites are found in many foods and can be perfectly harmless. But when they are used to cure bacon, and that bacon is then cooked and ingested, they produce carcinogenic nitrosamines in the stomach.”

Banning them “should be relatively straightforward. We no longer need these chemicals to make the delicious bacon that so many of us love. If you can make bacon that