what if behind is pretty pink and one of the biggest health scandals of our era. in two thousand and fifteen the world health organization listed processed meats as carcinogenic for man. we decided to investigate the ingredients used by the giants of the food industry. in d.n.a. breaks moved to eight cells into sort of precancerous cells. we discovered that to impede or halt regulations on certain additives food industry lobbies have been working in the shadows for decades. just to understand that the industry is a money making business so they're very risk averse they're not going to fund a study that is bad for their business. as. it's just a baby so to speak. at the heart of this strategy of influence are the scientists

who collaborate needs industry biju for this i received some compensation from my time as well as the others who wants. my consent. and the scientists who are targeted. basically were trying to shoot me down or discredit me that's what she needs scientifically. these efforts to go after the science to discredit the scientists is a key element of the much larger strategy which is the policy making process. between intimidation lies and manipulation we will uncover proof of a worldwide strategy where hitting below the belt is allowed. for. feeling. that it's time to eat tonight you are our guests. to find out how. ham is made we visited

a factory. we might. welcome to flowing one of the market leaders in france and one of the few to play the card of transparency. the ham on your supermarket shelves starts out like this. big lumps of pork meat. to add to taste a little vegetable stock. it all goes into a ham shaped mold and it's cooked. and the result perfectly pink rounded slices if you grasp the basics well let's rewind a little to see the detail that changes everything. to obtain this fine there's another very important step. you have to inject the

meat. a machine with a dozen syringes injects a liquid into the lumps of pork. the liquid contains an essential additive. factory manager who shows us. these yellow sacks contain a mixture of salt and sodium nitrite the additive to fifty. percent is the day. of us you'll. need to. buy to you seem to need a really. good s. up it's the. that's up it's big. in fact he's telling us that the pretty pink of our ham isn't natural at all.

it's thanks to sodium nitrate. this additive fixes the pink of the me during cooking. otherwise would be the color of roast pork. that's why food industrialist can't do without it as a processed meat producer would confirm consists of a loss r.c.c. says on law or polar and the girl who did a lot of that or that we can see on just get a car strange or it's a terrible clears a cream yawn for the nose on the hundred fifty for sale. just for sound perfectly legal there's only. some come up to some kind of it i'm not sure. that i can always. listen to. natural but without the

pink it would be impossible to sell. the big problem is that sodium nitrite is believed to be a danger to public health. the additives suspected of playing a role in the development of colorectal cancer. one of the deadliest cancers in europe. because of a phenomenon the takes place during digestion. its chemistry but will make it simple. piece of cured meet. you think your peacefully digesting it but what you don't know is the night kulish are reacting with the meat proteins transforming them into very dangerous substances. i mean.

we went to the netherlands to learn more about the effects of this chemical reaction on our health. to the faculty of medicine of maastricht university. this is where the toxicologist professor works. he's been interested in nitrites for years and by extension natural means. known to use damage in the large intestine so in. d.n.a. breaks. cells into sort of precancerous cells. or something. to prevent professor dick. notably want to find out what happens inside the body when we don't eat processed meat and when we eat a lot of it to do so he conducted an experiment with human guinea pigs. for two weeks and this student ate three hundred grams of processed meat a day the equivalent of eight.

to fifteen we saw. the exposure to. considerably increased. threefold increase. levels that we measure. the researcher measured the impact on the organism of this chemical mutation of nitrites. in his lab he tested the water of big processed meat eaters. so what you see here is. four different individuals. to see what happens inside the body the researchers mix this water with human cells . deposited in the test to. observe

what happened to the cells. you see. everything is. but if you are exposed to. breakage it's all of the d.n.a. you see this. is that this will eventually mutate into a type of cell how does it take for such a. relatively. say when we isolate the cells. and. also. stop using nitrites. potentially.

in europe. because. of very frequent disease. changes. and therefore potentially fewer deaths just by suppressing nitrites. but the food industry has a sledgehammer argument for justify the use of. it protects us from botulism. botulism is a form of food poisoning caused by bacteria that affect our central nervous system and can be deadly. jerry right. but there's a glitch in their argument. they're already companies which do

produce processed meats without nitrites and their customers are in fine form. if you happen to be copenhagen in denmark. pop into a supermarket. there you'll find cured meats nitrites. and for those whose danish is gone a bit rusty it's. it's everywhere. you can easily recognize it by its color more brownish than pretty pink. the best known brand is produced one hundred fifty kilometers south of the capital in denmark biggest organic processed meat plant kind of god.

and. the boss a biochemist started in nitrate free cured meats twenty five years ago. and since then the danish health authorities haven't registered a single case of botulism caused by processed meat. we do not have problems with this bacteria i would say of all the last fifty years this has not been a recent. topic in western europe that was a problem and needed to stay under years ago where england of as clean as they are slaughterhouses were another clean as they are today so no worry about bacteria now we had to worry about additives that my ticket was in. and if they are not necessary for some very good reasons we should not do is clear the cancer risk

today is the main risk that i may risk today definitely and and agony it has been so. long to produce to night i need the main reason is that the freight costs not accept which do not have the red color that they have been used to. so many.

the two thousand and eight economic crisis turns some countries into paid these are the countries with we carry colonies that needed austerity policies if you are in a situational for even the recession austerity is a very bad idea it doesn't work it makes millions of people very unhappy those who are unemployed see their wages decline almost a decade how good are the results she saw. a gathering place to watch. meaningful because she was having to file legal. challenges. while the same mission is still in place to one of the consequences to weaken libor. i will first. this is the truth the consumer

is the consequences are actually quite acceptable to the decision makers. at play for many clubs over the years so i know the game inside. the ball isn't only about what happens on the pitch school it's about the passion from the fans it's the age of the super money. and spending suited to the twenty million. book it's an experience like nothing else. i want to share what i think i know about the beautiful. that. is one of the few food industry companies to do with nitrites.

and experts have been ringing alarm bells for years twenty five years ago a european union health report already recommended reducing the amount of nitrite used in processed meat. in one thousand nine hundred nine this report even put forward banning its use altogether. despite the increasing number of studies the european commission still allows industrial food companies to add lots of nitrites to the products. so we went to the commissioner for health and food safety a former health minister in lithuania question. for our institutions which i. follow and.

states. sponsored that. for over an hour the commissioner attempted to pull the wool over our eyes. in spite of all the reports by experts which for twenty five years have warned the authorities about the dangers of nitrites. you know all this. it's just. since the possibility of how does no. good. how do we move forward. as soon as possible since parents is good this is a better just sort of did all decisions in the lines of procedures can you imagine like this if you don't like if i build big. b. and union oh but i'm not kidding of european union i mean this is has been so going

on for so now on the side of it started as it started shows that all stand in safety a line in this case is why europe lost against denmark in the european court of justice in this story i don't know very khandaan says is going. to go door to door get more info to mention the us i am not one who knows evidence and. so let's look at the facts mr commissioner. denmark wanted to limit the use of nitrites the european commission was against it and in two thousand and three in court the danes won in the name of the protection of public health. i am very happy about european court decisions then european court all these shows are probably going to do it to me that sound and the commissioner to sponsor

a public shows is in better conditions and yet since this court ruling e.u. regulations are just as lax as ever. from my point of view we must be more and asking to change the. need for follow ups to keep. on board popular accounts just not profit absolutely but it's but it's of course it's. time perfect that's just what the food industry wants and what it is built its strategy on for years. because when it comes to nitrite industrialists have been waiting out the clock for forty eight. years of scientific manipulation blackmail

and intense lobbying so the meat business can carry on bringing home the bacon. and it all began on the other side of the atlantic. if you think we're exaggerating listen to this. in the late one nine hundred seventy s. nitrite was almost banned in the united states just after the publication of a large scale. study requested by the government. a relationship between. it was proved suggested proved and a fairly strong one there were two thousand. very extensive study done by a well respected scientist. nitrites was announced in the press but the american media institute would bring out its big guns. in his office

overlooking the capital its president richard ling spoke. needs to contain or big big thing the. billion dollars about two thirds of the whole production in the states goes into cured meats. presents a problem or our industry and or the government. we're all hopeful of a solution. armed with financial analysis the american meat lobby forced the government to back down the banning of nitrites prices plummeting and cause an apocalypse. but it was a political event that would close the debate. in one thousand eighty ronald reagan was elected president of the united states and

guess who entered into government. richard ling the president of the american meat institute himself. the idea of banning nitrite forever buried. the experiment based on two thousand rats ended up in the trash can. and after that the same fate would await every scientific publication calling nitrites into question. if you're wondering how the interest of industry can systematically win against what's at stake in public health the following will enlighten you. fifteen years after the victory of reagan and the media industrialists a new study shook america to the core. if it's not one thing it's another a study finds a link between hot dogs now and cancer put yourself in the shoes of the average

american joe at the time. you and your family are eating hot dogs at the shopping mall or in the street just as usual. the effect was immediate in a matter of days dog sales fell by eight percent. and given the size of the american market that represented millions of dollars less for the food industry. the author of the hot dog study that caused sales to plummet was susan preston mark . she's now retired scientist living near los angeles in a residential suburban setting straight out of an american so. after several tense months of talks she agreed to see us.

but we had to insist right up until the last minute. the lady is very discreet it's only to go from friendship. mrs preston martin. yes and sometimes you got some strange t.v. . discoveries on processed meats the researcher was the victim of a number of attacks but she agreed to look back at her work which showed up link between the excessive eating of hot dogs and certain rare cancers in children. how did you find the relationship. well just the way we always did when we did case control studies we started out with a group of children who had leukemia and compared them to group children who didn't have the mothers about what they fed the children and sure enough the kids with.

dogs what did you think when you saw this strong relationship because it was quite strong it was with dogs i was a little bit surprised and just. reserved judgment which is what. they find something they don't expect. from that moment on for the food industrialists susan preston martin became public enemy number one. and the meat lobby they definitely didn't like what we were doing they were terribly upset and i could understand that you know their livelihood was making processed meats and they didn't want any any thing coming out saying that those were not good for you basically were trying to shoot me down or discredit me and that's what shoot down needs scientifically.

what we discovered went much farther. the scientists had never realized just whom she was dealing with. america made a hot dog. meyer gave it to get it it is. in the us the undisputed champion of supermarket sold hot dogs has always been oscar meyer. america's number one with. a brand of the kraft foods group a giant of the food industry. so far no surprises. but what's less known is that at the time and until two thousand and seven kraft was owned by philip morris the world's second largest tobacco company a lobby which went as far as lies and manipulation to defend its own interests notably in the big tobacco lawsuits of the one nine hundred ninety s. do you believe nicotine is not addictive i believe nicotine is not addictive yet i believe. in your questioning proven scientific

facts the strategy worked perfectly for years with tobacco so philip morris use it again to save oscar meyer's hotdogs. and. he joined her stand how the multinational manipulated science to defend its investments in cured meats you know we headed to northern california. in to san francisco. hey if this university library holds what are commonly known as the tobacco documents millions of internal tobacco industry documents. and. our guide stanton glantz has spent his life unraveling the cigarette makers strategies. and. he particularly remembers one phrase used by

a lobbyist in one thousand nine hundred sixty nine. doubters our product since it is the best means of competing with the body of fact that exists in the mind of the general public it is also the means of establishing a controversy for him everything is summed up in one word. and it was exactly like that by creating doubt that philip morris set out to discredit dr preston martin study on processed meat and cancer in children. the proof is there in the vast database of the tobacco documents. by typing susan preston martin you get hundreds of hits. and all in the philip morris by. the researchers name crops up regularly in the titles of memos letters and internal reports.

the multinational believed her study on hot dogs would reopen the debate surrounding nitrites from the one nine hundred seventy s. so it paid scientists to go through her work with a fine tooth comb in order to find any weak points. even her contracts and grant papers passed under the microscope. basically anything that could be used against her. and we concur in the eyes of the government and the press. when i'll go.

to may know is this and then i'm going out to run and then she'll get the doubts it would be theo i know there's no sellable. yeah use on this will for. myself indeed i must but i feel a lot of them behind. bars on the c.d.'s that counts you don't need the militia. to look them up into it is the food out of this not so be this not be but i mean. look you're the. get delivered i'm with you.

with your make this manufacture consent to public wealth. when the ruling classes protect themselves. with the famous merry go round me the one percent. we can all middle of the room sick.

spain is deeply divided as the crisis hits point for the. independents in the face of furious. blocking our accounts and the latest attack. on the deadliest u.s. military combat operation of the company ministration reveals some key senators have no clue about american troop presence in asia.