As a vegetarian, I was pretty happy about recent headlines comparing smoking to bacon, in terms of cancer risk. But the scientist in me wasn’t so happy about how the world’s media covered the announcement. Just because bacon and other processed or cured meats have been shown to cause cancer, it doesn’t mean that eating them is as risky as smoking, drinking, or snorting asbestos.

Basically, it comes down to a question of quantity. Cancer Research UK did a calculation: If we chopped all such meat out of our diets, it would prevent only 8,800 cases of cancer each year in Britain. Compare that to the 64,500 fewer cancer diagnoses in the country if smoking were banned.

But as much as I miss eating bacon and salami, this isn’t the first time we’ve gotten things really wrong when it comes to what’s safe to eat. History is littered with false food scares and conflicting evidence — some from the scientific community, others peddled by amateur nutritionists, “wellness experts,” or even rival food industries. Here are five examples of our food failures since the dawn of the industrial revolution.