A researcher who is part of a study that challenged advice to limit meat consumption is in hot water after reports revealed he failed to disclose his past ties to the meat and food industry.

Controversial Red Meat Study

In the controversial study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine journal last week, Dalhousie University's Bradley Johnston and colleagues claimed that decades-long recommendations by health experts to limit the consumption of red meat were unfounded.

The study examined previous research that advised people to reduce meat consumption by three servings per week, which has been touted to reduce cancer mortality rates among other health benefits. The researchers, however, said that they found the decline in mortality rate was modest.

"For our review of randomized trials on harms and benefits (12 unique trials enrolling 54 000 participants), we found low- to very low-certainty evidence that diets lower in unprocessed red meat may have little or no effect on the risk for major cardiometabolic outcomes and cancer mortality and incidence," Jonston and colleagues wrote in their study.

Johnston and colleagues said that the link of meat to cancer, heart disease, and other health problems is weak, and if there is a health benefit to giving up meat products, it would be small.

The American Heart Association, the American Cancer Society, the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and other groups have responded to the findings, saying they harm the credibility of nutritional research and that the research is fatally flawed.

Ties To Food Trade Company

Health experts now have more reason to doubt the study. The New York Times reported that Johnston failed to disclose years of ties to a large agribusiness and food trade company, whose members include McDonald's and Cargill, one of North America's largest beef processors.

Johnston has previously wrote a study that challenged decades of research that people should limit sugar consumption. That particular study was paid for by the food trade company International Life Sciences Institute.

Amid the controversy, Johnston said that he followed the disclosure rules of the Annals of Internal Medicine, which require him to reveal outside funding he received within three years.

He said that the last time he received from the International Life Sciences Institute was nearly five years ago and that he has since cut all ties with the trade group.