ANSES has issued its opinion on the nitrates and nitrites used respectively in water and on salad leaves and in processed meat to increase their shelf life. The health agency believes that these substances promote the appearance of colorectal cancers, among others. Nitrites have been classified as carcinogenic by the International Agency for Research on Cancer since 2015. The government announced on Tuesday July 12 an “action plan” in the fall. Guest of franceinfo, Richard Ramos is MoDem deputy for Loiret, member of a parliamentary fact-finding mission which has been working on the issue since 2019, and author of a bill to ban nitrates and nitrites.
franceinfo: How did you receive this opinion from ANSES?
Richard Ramos: It’s really historic because for once, we have a text that clearly tells us: nitrites in charcuterie kill French people! We will therefore be able to start from that, since until now no one really wanted to recognize it. Now, we have to protect the poorest because once again, it is among the poorest populations that we will buy ham with nitrites and with a risk of dying when there is nitrite-free. ANSES also says it: without nitrites, there are millions of slices that are sold, and there is no return of botulism and salmonellosis. That’s better than three rats in a lab. But for that it is necessary to have clean factories and to have pigs which are not soiled. And so I say: it’s a danger for France, it’s a danger for the consumer, so let’s ensure that those who have dirty factories and those who buy dirty pigs are excluded from the market to make a ham without nitrites and which protects the French.
How do we replace these components and therefore avoid diseases?
So it exists since in the rays, you have plenty of without nitrites. It’s possible. We go from 21 days of DLC (consumption limit) to 14 days. It is also up to the consumer to say that 14 days is enough for him to buy a product that does not kill and will be much healthier. That’s the reality. And I repeat, all this big nonsense where we are told that stopping nitrites would mean the return of diseases, it is false since today there are millions of slices that can be eaten without nitrites, with zero return of botulism or salmonellosis.
Consumers also have a role in all this because the health agency advises to limit its consumption of charcuterie to 150 grams per week. Everyone must also reduce their consumption.
Yes, I’m talking about nitrites in charcuterie because it’s the cocktail effect between the blood of the meat and the nitrites that makes it carcinogenic. In fact, the consumer has already started to eat less of it. But it is a little less true for the poorest: because in the past the rich ate meat and the poor ate vegetables, today the rich eat vegetables and the poor eat meat, and sometimes dangerous meat. So yes, the consumer must eat less charcuterie, but he must eat good: good pork, but not junk food!