“The lobbyists managed to ensure that it was not banned,” denounces the Modem deputy from Loiret

Guest on franceinfo on Monday, Richard Ramos, Modem deputy for Loiret, reacts to the non-ban on nitrites in charcuterie.

“The lobbyists managed to ensure that it was not banned,” Richard Ramos, Modem deputy for Loiret, was scandalized on Monday December 18 on franceinfo. The elected official, very involved in this issue of nitrites for several years, delivered last week to Emmanuel Macron a packet of nitrite-free kibble for Nemo, the president’s dog. Through this gesture, he wishes to alert the President of the Republic to the danger of nitrites in cold meats. The European Union has just banned them in pet food. “It’s an aberration”he said. “Anses, the independent body on which the State relies, said that there was a correlation between colorectal cancer and nitrite in cold meats”he recalled.

Franceinfo: The European Union has banned nitrites in pet food, but continues to authorize it for cold meats. For what ?

Richard Ramos: It’s a shame. It has been shown by scientific authorities that cancer is due in particular to nitrites in cold meats. We now know from science that we get colorectal cancer because of nitrite. The lobbyists managed to ensure that it was not banned. This is the fight I am fighting. The European Union has just said it’s banned, we no longer have the right to give it to dogs and cats because it kills. They relied on the same scientists. It’s an aberration. That’s why I had kibble delivered to the President of the Republic to tell him: “President, your dog, he has the right to live well and the poor in France have the right to die”. It is the poor who eat the most with nitrites. President, help me to finally bring humans on par with our pets. Let’s stop killing the poor in France.

Maybe he has other priorities?

There are lots of priorities. It’s a fight I’ve been fighting for five years. We know that nitrite in cold meats kills the French. Three days before his death, Axel Kahn texted me saying : ‘Dear Richard, hold on! You will be my soul in the hemicycle.’ There is always news, but today, nitrites in cold meats kill humans, we continue! We know that it kills our animals, dogs and cats, Europe has said stop! This is a real aberration. My heartfelt cry to President Macron: ‘You have lots of things to do, President, of course, but it’s so simple to join hands so that we ban nitrites in cold meats.’

Vets say it’s immediately more dangerous than for humans…

This is because the weight, obviously, of the animal is not the same. But it’s based on the same scientific studies. It’s not the cold meats themselves, it’s the cocktail effect between blood and nitrite that produces death. It produces death perhaps more quickly in animals, but in humans, science has spoken. ANSES, the independent body on which the State relies, said: ‘There is a correlation between colorectal cancer and nitrite in cold meats.’ There is no longer any doubt. Science has spoken. It is the lobbyists who have to lay siege to the Ministry of Agriculture from time to time who prevented it from being banned, so it must be banned.