Food security

Removing environmental pollutants from raw meat

Six months ago, the International Agency for Research on Cancer associated consumption of red meat and processed meat to cancer risk. However, in its analysis, it made no reference to some carcinogenic environmental pollutants that are already present in raw or unprocessed meat. A study now shows that cooking processes that remove fat from meat can reduce the concentrations of these substances.

When the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) announced last October that the consumption of both red meat and processed meat was associated with an increased risk of cancer, there was widespread alarm.

The specialist institution of the World Health Organization (WHO) reviewed more than 800 studies and classified red meat as "probably carcinogenic to humans" and processed meat as "carcinogenic to humans," with sufficient evidence that its consumption can cause colorectal cancer.

According to the study published six months ago in The Lancet Oncology, the carcinogenic substances in processed meat are generated by salting, fermentation, curing and smoking processes, or when the meat is heated to high temperatures, releasing suspected carcinogens such as nitrous compounds, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and heterocyclic aromatic amines, among others.