The ICSA has slammed EU claims that red meat poses a cancer risk and said that there is no sound evidence in the case of unprocessed red meats.

With regards to processed meats, research conducted by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) on behalf of the World Health Organization found only a marginal increased risk, ICSA president Dermot Kelleher has said.

“It is important to note that the research actually suggests that additives and processes such as smoking meat are likely the issue in the case of processed meat,” he said.

The rebuke from the ICSA has come hot on the heels of an EU food promotion policy, which labelled red meat consumption as a cancer risk.

The €170m policy aims to promote an environmentally friendly, sustainable food system, as well as contributing to the EU’s ‘Beating Cancer’ plan. It states: “For proposals targeting the internal market, alignment with the objectives of Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan, in particular encouraging the shift to a more plant-based diet, with less red and processed meat and other foods linked to cancer risks (eg alcoholic drinks).”

It is distorting fair competition and actually undermining highly nutritious food produced by EU livestock farmers

According to the Farm to Fork Strategy, red meat includes beef, pig meat, lamb, goat meat and all processed meats, it said.

The ICSA has said that the policy is “a wilful misrepresentation of the actual research.”

Kelleher said it is worrisome that the EU appears to be supporting highly processed plant burgers over real meat.

“Apart from the fact that it is not based on robust evidence, it is distorting fair competition and actually undermining highly nutritious food produced by EU livestock farmers,” Kelleher said.

Professor Alice Stanton of the Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland told an online event on the policy in June that excessive red meat and processed meat consumption is linked to less than 2% of all cancers.

“By contrast tobacco and excess weight/obesity contribute to over 50% of cancers.”