Scores of hospitals are giving patients meat cured with chemicals that scientists and food safety experts increasingly fear may cause cancer.
Sixty-one NHS trusts in England are serving meat in their hospitals that may contain nitrates or nitrites despite growing evidence internationally implicating them in the development of cancer.
There is particular concern about nitrites, which are often found in bacon and ham and are used to give bacon its pink colour and also as a preservative. Some scientists and MPs have urged the government to ban them from being used in food preparation.
The 61 trusts include two of the country’s best-known hospitals which specialise in treating cancer – the Christie in Manchester and Royal Marsden in London.
Several children’s hospitals are also using meat cured with those chemicals. They include Alder Hey in Liverpool, Great Ormond Street in London and Sheffield children’s hospital.
“This latest investigation shines a disturbing light on the risks that vulnerable groups, including children, are exposed to in our hospitals”, said Prof Chris Elliott, an expert on toxic chemicals in food, who is a leading campaigner for nitrites to be removed from meat production.
Given so many hospitals are still using nitrite-cured meat “it is clear that these health risks are not well-understood and limited action is being taken to reduce an everyday cancer risk”, he added.
“The UK government must follow the latest evidence and ban nitrites to keep these cancer-causing chemicals out of our hospitals and in fact out of our entire food system.”
The World Health Organization has identified nitrites as a cause of bowel cancer. The Conservative former health minister Dr Dan Poulter and politicians from other parties have been calling for ministers to ban them.
“These new and shocking findings highlight just why a ban on nitrites is so badly needed”, said Lady Ritchie, a Labour peer.
“Eliminating nitrite-cured meats, especially in our hospitals, has the potential to reduce rates of cancer and protect the nation’s health.”
In March the European Food Safety Agency (EFSA) declared that the levels of nitrosamines found in food across the continent such as cured meat – chemicals that are carcinogenic or genotoxic – “raise a health concern”.
The French government has responded to growing concern about nitrites’ impact on human health by ordering the meat industry to cut the amount of nitrites in products such as ham and sausages.
The disclosure about the widespread use of nitrate and nitrite-cured meat emerged from a series of freedom of information requests to 142 NHS trusts and health boards in England and Wales. Of the 71 that replied, 61 – all in England – said they use meat containing the compounds.
Only 10 said they did not serve meat containing either chemical. They include Gloucestershire hospitals acute trust, the Tavistock and Portman mental health provider in London and the ambulance services covering the north-east, south-west and West Midlands.
The other 71 did not reply or said they did not hold data that let them respond.
Elliott, a professor at Queen’s University Belfast who led a review ministers ordered after the 2013 horse meat scandal, said there was no longer any reason for meat producers to use the chemicals because other ways of curing it have existed for some years.
Marks & Spencer and Morrisons supermarkets produce their own ranges of nitrite-free bacon, as does Finnebrogue, the Northern Irish food firm that commissioned the freedom of information trawl.
Ministers have maintained that the evidence does not merit a ban on nitrites. It has justified its stance on the basis of EFSA’s previous view of them, which saw them as non-harmful. However, the food safety regulator has now revised its position and made clear its concern about them.
NHS England declined to comment on the widespread use of nitrate and nitrite-cured meat by hospitals. A spokesperson said: “While food safety and regulation are matters for the Food Standards Agency and government, the NHS supports people in hospital with healthy meals and recently introduced new national food standards to further improve catering services for patients.”
