THE government warning that eating red meat increases the risk of cancer will alarm a meat industry already rocked by the BSE and E-coli scares, but how much heed will the public pay when, it seems, the official guidelines are uncertain?

True, the attack on the recommendations by the Meat and Livestock Commission, which claimed people are being needlessly frightened, is that of an interest group, but the last-minute change in advice to consumers on how much meat they should eat suggests that there is doubt about the level of risk.

For when the report on which this warning is based was first drafted by a government advisory panel, it targeted only the heaviest meat-eaters - those consuming more than 5oz ounces a day.

But, later, it was changed to include average meat-eaters, whose consumption is a little over 3oz a day - to advise them to think about eating less.

Plainly, then, the warning has been beefed up. But, with this sudden switch, is there not a risk of people concluding that, if the experts are uncertain about safe levels of meat-eating, how can ordinary people be sure? And, in view of reports of a row between the Health Ministry and the Department of Health over the advice - one that is officially denied - cynics might suspect that, behind the change, lie differences between one faction that wished to underplay the risk and another which might be overstating it.

This is not good enough. The guidelines should be as clear-cut as possible - to equally serve the interests of consumers and producers.

It may be that the report is now being re-written to include more precise figures on "safe" portions, but, as a result of this uncertainty, they are now likely to be met with scepticism.

It is, however, also the case that the public has been moving ahead of this official advice on eating red meat and has been cutting its consumption in any case, if not out of concern over a cancer risk, then out of a desire to avoid heart disease by eating less fat.

But if the government wishes to make people even more concerned about their diet in view of the link between cancer and meat-eating - which was also underlined by a report yesterday by the World Cancer Research Fund - it ought not to have doubt cast on its own advice on what is safe.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.