Comment by tpm

There is certainly a bunch of bad stuff in meat (and in industrially produced vegetables too) but that is separate from the established carcinogens contained in processed meat, which is AFAIK mostly nitrates from curing salts reacting with the heme from blood (vegetables often contain nitrates too but they don't contain blood). Which is why the use of curing salts is heavily restricted (and antioxidants added) but OTOH still needed to restrict the growth of Clostridium botulinum. The other one would be carcinogens from frying.