No
prosciutto panic, please: Italian producers respond to
WHO meat alarm
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[October 28, 2015]
By Isla Binnie
ROME (Reuters) - The home of Parma ham,
trumpeting the benefits of a traditional Mediterranean diet, is urging
consumers not to get into a prosciutto panic after a warning that
processed meat can cause cancer.
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Italian food and farming groups responded indignantly to the World
Health Organization (WHO) report that put cured meats, such as ham,
sausage and salami, together with asbestos and tobacco on a list of
carcinogens.
"No to meat terrorism, the Italian stuff is the healthiest,"
agricultural association Coldiretti said in a statement, crediting
the country's diet for one of the highest life expectancies in the
world - 80 years for men and 85 for women.
The WHO said each 50-gram (1.76 oz) portion of processed meat -
usually beef or pork which has been transformed through processes
like salting and smoking - increased the risk of colorectal cancer
by 18 percent.
Italians on average eat a lot less than that, according to the
National Meat and Charcuterie Association, which estimates
consumption at 25 grams of processed meat a day.
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Coldiretti also underlines the non-health aspects of issue, noting
the meat industry in Italy generates 32 billion euros ($35 billion)
a year in sales and provides work for 180,000 people.
Health Ministry Beatrice Lorenzin said the government was looking
into the WHO report, but said people shouldn't be afraid of the
findings, which also pointed to "limited evidence" that unprocessed
beef, lamb and pork caused cancer.
"We have always known that eating too much red meat is bad for you.
The secret is the Mediterranean diet ... we should eat a little of
everything," she said at the nutrition-themed Expo World's Fair in
Milan.
The much-touted Mediterranean diet calls for a balance of healthy
fats such as olive oil, non-starchy vegetables such as broccoli,
carbohydrates such as pasta, and proteins such as cheese.
ANTIPASTO
The WHO report was splashed across the front pages of Italian
newspapers on Tuesday - as elsewhere in the world - and alarmed
producers of Italian prosciutto, a thinly-sliced, dry-cured raw ham
considered such a delicacy it is often served alone and unseasoned
as an "antipasto" before a main meal.
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"We might suffer an economic hit," Nicola Levoni, whose family
company has been producing ham, salami and mortadella sausage in
northern Italy for four generations, told La Repubblica newspaper.
"At the moment there's a risk that someone standing in front of a
greengrocer and a butcher's shop will only go into the former, but
they should be shopping in both, because our meat is good," Levoni
said.
Some reports suggested fear had already spread among consumers. The
head of FIESA Confesercenti, an association of nutrition
specialists, was quoted on Tuesday as saying that red meat sales had
already started to fall at traditional butchers'.
"Confusion reigns. People are bewildered and are going straight to
the sellers to ask them to explain," FIESA Confesercenti head Gian
Paolo Angelotti told AGI news agency.
The health ministry has asked the national Commission for Food
Safety to look into the matter.
(Editing by Jeremy Gaunt)
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