Have you noticed that whenever you see an advertisement for ham on television, it’s often set in the countryside with a nice family and a rustic backdrop and the ham itself is always pink? It’s usually very pink and 100% natural of course. But what if behind this delicious pink color hid one of the biggest health scandals of our era. In 2015, the World Health Organisation listed processed meats as carcinogenic for humans. As a result, the filmmakers decided to investigate the ingredients used by the giants of the food industry.

From various interviews, we learn that this additive can induce DNA breaks, mutate cells into pre-cancer cells. We also learn that to impede or halt regulations on certain additives food industry lobbyists have been working in the shadows for decades. That same additive was nearly banned in America in the 1970s – until lobbying from the meat industry discredited the scientists. At the heart of this strategy are the scientists who collaborate, who receive generous compensation for studies that promote meat consumption.

In conjunction with this, those whose work finds health risks associated with meat are ‘shot down’. From Brittany to Denmark, through California and Wisconsin, director Sandrine Rigaud conducted a year-long investigation on the tactics of the meat industry.

Directed by: Guillaume Coudray , Sandrine Rigaud