WCRF Criticises Meat Industry Over Misleading Public Statement

HONG KONG, February 12 - World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) has accused the British meat industry
of misleading the public by making factually inaccurate and potentially
defamatory comments.

In a coordinated attack, the National Beef Association (NBA), the British
Pig Executive (BPEX), the National Sheep Association (NSA) and the National
Farmers' Union (NFU) have issued statements suggesting that WCRF has misled
the public with its recommendations on meat.

But WCRF has responded by assuring people it continues to stand behind
its recommendation to limit intake of red meat to 500g (cooked weight) per
week and avoid processed meat. This is the conclusion of an independent panel
of international scientists who judged the evidence that they increase
colorectal cancer risk to be convincing, following the biggest review of the
evidence ever undertaken.

The UK meat lobby accuses WCRF of making mistakes in analysing the
scientific literature about the link between meat and colorectal cancer and
then refusing to admit to these mistakes. This is not true.

Any errors in the report were too minor to have affected the overall
conclusions. These are detailed on our website at
www.dietandcancerreport.org/?p=errors_and_omissions and have been set
out in detail in letters to the meat industry.

Professor Martin Wiseman, Project Director of the Report, said: "These
insinuations are nothing short of outrageous. The truth is that we have had
open dialogue with the meat industry for many months on exactly these issues
and we have given them all the information they have requested.

"I invited them to share this information with the Food Standards Agency
and others. But it appears they are only interested in creating doubt in
people's minds.

"This report features the judgements of an independent panel of eminent
scientists. WCRF commissioned the report with money raised from the general
public and therefore it was not influenced by any vested interests.

"The fact is that our report is the most comprehensive and authoritative
review of the evidence that has ever been published and it found convincing
evidence that red and processed meat both increase risk of colorectal
cancer."

The full report is available for download at
www.dietandcancerreport.org

For more information contact Patricia Chiu on +852-2529-5025.