Thailand’s National Cancer Institute has refuted as untrue a social media report linking eight kinds of food with cancer.

The report lists seasoning powder, chewing gum, pig’s liver, picked vegetables, dried radish, bottled fruit juice, preserved eggs, stinky (fermented) tofu and deep-fried dough sticks as being linked to certain forms of cancer.

Medical Services Department Director-General Somsak Akksilp said today (Wednesday) that the National Cancer Institute maintains that there is no causal link between cancer in humans and the these foodstuffs.

The institute did, however, say that consuming any of these types of food which are unhygienically stored of prepared or which have not been properly produced may be harmful to health.

Director of the National Cancer Institute, Dr. Sakarn Bunnag, said that unhygienically stored or prepared pickled vegetables may cause stomach upsets, due to the presence of microbes, eating too much fried food may lead to obesity and too much chewing gum may cause digestive problems.

He advised people to refrain from consuming these foods on regular basis, but to eat a variety of food, which is properly cooked and which meet safety standards, in a balanced diet.