Prime Minister Joseph Muscat has expressed his concern at the World Health Organisation's decision to classify processed meat as carcinogenic as he called for a wide debate.

In a tweet, Dr Muscat said the classification concerned him as a parent, consumer and policy maker.

A wide debate and decisions were needed, he said.

WHO experts said yesterday that eating processed meat could lead to bowel cancer in humans while red meat was a likely cause of the disease.

The France-based International Agency for Research on Cancer, which is part of WHO, put processed meat such as hot dogs and ham in its group 1 list, which already includes tobacco, asbestos and diesel fumes, for which there is "sufficient evidence" of cancer links.

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