Bacon, burgers and sausages are a cancer risk, say world health chiefs

Bacon, burgers and sausages are as big a cancer threat as cigarettes, global health chiefs are to rule.

The World Health Organisation is to list processed meat among the most cancer-causing substances, alongside arsenic and asbestos.

Fresh red meat is also due to join the ‘encyclopaedia of carcinogens’ and is likely to be ranked as only slightly less dangerous than the preserved products.

Bacon, burgers and sausages: The classifications come amid mounting concern that meat fuels the disease which claims more than 150,000 lives a year in the UK

Bacon, burgers and sausages: The classifications come amid mounting concern that meat fuels the disease which claims more than 150,000 lives a year in the UK

The rulings, revealed to the Mail by a well-placed source, will send shock waves through the farming industry and the fast food sector. They could also lead to new dietary guidelines and warning labels on packs of bacon.

The classifications, by the WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer, come amid mounting concern that meat fuels the disease which claims more than 150,000 lives a year in the UK. Dailymail