Meat lovers can carry on with their bacon sandwiches and steaks as experts say there is no proof red or processed meat causes cancer.

A team of researchers has said the work which links red meat with serious health problems is weak so people should carry on as they are, enjoying three to four portions of red or processed meat a week.

However the new work hasn't convinced many behind the existing research to do a U-turn.

The new study comes against recommendations from the World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) which advises people to avoid processed meat altogether, or eat very little, and limit red meat to three portions a week.

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) advises anyone who eats more than 90g of red or processed meat a day to cut down to 70g or less, and the World Health Organisation's International Agency for Research on Cancer has said red meat is "probably carcinogenic" to humans.


The WHO has said processed meat is a carcinogenic, meaning it causes cancer.

Image: The researchers don't think a big reduction in meat consumption is necessary

In this new study, a team of 14 experts from seven countries assessed the quality of the evidence available on eating meat and health outcomes.

Study author Bradley Johnston, from Dalhousie University in Canada, said: "Based on the research, we cannot say with any certainty that eating red or processed meat causes cancer, diabetes or heart disease."

Their advice, that adults should continue to eat their current level of red and processed meat, which is about three to four times a week, is contrary to almost all other guidelines that exist.

Mr Johnston said the team could find no real benefit in cutting down below this level.

He said: "From 12 randomised controlled trials enrolling about 54,000 individuals, we did not find a statistically significant or an important association in the risk of heart disease, cancer or diabetes for those that consumed less red or processed meat."

They found the certainty of evidence was low to very low when it came to a small reduction in risk for having three fewer portions a week.

He said: "Our bottom line recommendation - which is a weak recommendation based on low quality evidence - is that for the majority of people, not everyone, continuing their red and processed meat consumption is the right approach."

But the recommendation has been criticised by other experts in the field.

Dr Giota Mitrou, director of research at the WCRF, warned people against interpreting the study to mean they could eat as much red meat as they want.

She said: "The message people need to hear is that we should be eating no more than three portions of red meat a week and avoiding processed meat altogether.

"We stand by our rigorous research of the last 30 years and urge the public to follow the current recommendations on red and processed meat."

Tim Key, professor of epidemiology and deputy director of the cancer epidemiology unit at the University of Oxford, said: "There's substantial evidence that processed meat can cause bowel cancer - so much so that the World Health Organisation has classified it as carcinogenic since 2015.

"Today's new publication reports results essentially identical to the existing evidence, but describes the impact very differently, contradicting the general consensus among cancer research experts.

"The authors here have found the same evidence of an effect but they think it is so modest that it isn't worth recommending we do anything about it."

A study carried out by Oxford University in April, funded by Cancer Research UK, found that even small amounts of red or processed meat, like just one rasher of bacon a day, could increase the risk of bowel cancer by 20%.

For every 10,000 people in that study who ate 21g of red and processed meat a day, 40 were diagnosed with bowel cancer. This compared to 48 for every 10,000 who ate 76g a day.

The charity says about 5,400 of the 41,804 bowel cancer cases a year in the UK could be prevented if people didn't eat meat at all.

Emma Shields, Cancer Research UK's health information manager, said: "Processed meat increases the risk of bowel cancer - there's a mass of evidence that shows this.

"This research came to the same conclusion, the main difference being the researchers' view that eating less meat doesn't help very much. But this is different to what many other researchers and experts say - that if people ate less processed meat in the UK alone, it could prevent around 5,400 cases of bowel cancer every year.

"We don't recommend people cut out meat altogether if they don't want to, but anyone who eats a lot of it and wants to reduce their risk of bowel cancer may wish to think about cutting down."