certain components in meat, such as heme iron, amines, and amides, they can form nitroso compounds, which may contribute to the association between consumption of processed meats and higher incidence of colorectal cancer. Relationship to cancer The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) at the World Health Organization (WHO) classifies processed meat as Group 1 (carcinogenic to humans), because the IARC has found sufficient evidence that consumption of processed meat by humans causes colorectal cancer. A 2016 report by the American Institute for Cancer Research and the World Cancer Research Fund found that processed meat consumption also increases the risk of stomach cancer. References Further reading Coudray, Guillaume. Who poisoned your bacon? The dangerous history of meat additives. London: Icon Books, 2021. Horowitz, Roger. Putting Meat on the American Table. Taste, Technology, Transformation. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005. External links Meat processing technology for small- to medium-scale producers Gunter Heinz, Peter Hautzinger, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (RAP), Bangkok, 2007, Introduction Meat IARC Group 1 carcinogens