Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she taking to support research into the effects of processed foods and early antibiotic use, including research on the potential contribution to increasing cancer rates in the young.

In relation to processed foods, the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition’s (SACN’s) rapid evidence update on processed foods found that the categories of processed food consistently associated with adverse health outcomes, including cancer, included meat and animal products. The SACN therefore reiterated its existing advice on processed foods, including avoiding high intakes of red and processed meat.

Anti-infective medicines, including antibiotics, underpin many modern medical interventions, including cancer treatment. The UK Health Security Agency's Antimicrobial Resistance and Healthcare-Associated Infections Division monitors national antibiotic and other anti-infective use to inform interventions that improve prescribing and reduce antimicrobial resistance. The UKHSA is also strengthening surveillance to better understand the burden of resistant infections in people with cancer and keeps emerging evidence in this area under review.