Inconsistent reports on red meat

Sunday, April 3, 2011

In mid-February, a British Sunday newspaper published a leaked report from a forthcoming report by the UK's Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SAC). The report that meat consumption should be restricted to 70 grams a day (the equivalent of three strips of bacon) may have made pork producers splutter in their morning tea.

But when the study confirming the link between higher meat consumption and cancer was officially released at the end of the month, the meat industry hardly reacted at all.

The SAC study isn't expected to have an impact on meat sales. "There have been so many reports over time, at the end of the day it is just another and it doesn't have any less or greater credibility than any other," Chris Lamb, head of the organization that represents pig levy payers in England told the FoodNavigator website.

Released at about the same time was a report from the British Nutrition Foundation which appears to be in conflict with the Scientific Advisory Committee. Lamb said both reports "contain comment about the beneficial nutrients in red meat and both refer to the inconsistencies in research into red meat and cancer." BP