First Italy’s prosciutto producers warned against “meaningless alarmism”. Now, following the World Health Organisation’s warning that processed meats can cause cancer, Germany and Austria have sprung to the defence of the countries’ most emblematic sausages.

On Tuesday, the German food and agriculture minister, Christian Schmidt, said: “No one should be afraid when eating a bratwurst. As with everything, what counts is the quantity: too much of something is always bad for health.”

He added: “We worry people unnecessarily if we put meat in the same category as asbestos or tobacco.”

His Austrian counterpart echoed the sentiment, calling the WHO report a “farce”. Andrä Rupprechter wrote in a Facebook post: “Placing ham on the same level as asbestos is outrageous nonsense and only serves to unsettle people. There’s no doubt for me: Austria’s sausage is and remains the best.”

To underline his point, Rupprechter posted a picture of himself about to tuck into a huge platter of cold cuts with a grin on his face.

Krebswarnung b Fleisch&Wurst ist Farce&verunsichert nur d Menschen!Österreichs Wurst ist und bleibt die Beste!AR ;) pic.twitter.com/n0wwTdqFxD — Andrä Rupprechter (@BMRupprechter) October 27, 2015

Based on a review of 800 studies from around the world, WHO body the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) said it found “sufficient evidence in humans that the consumption of processed meat causes colorectal cancer”.

For unprocessed red meat – beef, veal, pork, lamb, mutton, horse or goat – the review found “strong” evidence of a link, but not convincing enough to place it in the group of confirmed cancer-causing agents which includes tobacco, asbestos, alcohol and now also salami.

Germany is a key meat-producing country, generating 8.8m tonnes in 2013, including more than 5m tonnes of pork and 1.4m tonnes of poultry.

Although sausages and salami figure regularly in German meals, meat consumption in the country has fallen in recent years. The average German ate 60.3kg of meat in 2013, down from 61.3kg in 2010.

Austrians consumed 65.3kg of meat on average in 2013.