USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has denied a petition from the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) that had sought to have warning labels placed on processed meat and poultry products advising consumers of an increased risk of colorectal cancer.
“FSIS considers these products safe to consume and not misbranded for failure to display the warning labels sought in petition. Further, the requested warning label could be misleading in that it would fail to provide information that consumers would need to place the asserted risk in proper context,” the agency wrote in a letter notifyinig CSPI of its decision.
The group requested in December 2016 that FSIS create regulations requiring warning lables to say that frequenst consumption of processed meat and poultry could raise the risk of colon and rectal cancer.
FSIS noted studies cited in the petition state that cooking certain processed meat and poultry products at hight tempertaures can cause carcinogenic compounds to form, but the studies and the petition acknowledge that the mechanisms giving rise to the purpoted increased cancer rish are currently unknown.
