Its report said 50g of handled meat a day - under two cuts of bacon - expanded the shot of creating colorectal disease by 18%.
In the interim, it said red meats were "likely cancer-causing" however there was restricted proof.
The WHO did stress that meat additionally had medical advantages.
Malignancy Research UK said this was motivation to chop down as opposed to surrender red and handled meats.
What's more, included that an intermittent bacon sandwich would do little damage.
It is the chemicals included in the preparing which could be expanding the danger of disease. High temperature cooking, for example, on a grill, can likewise make cancer-causing chemicals.
In the UK, around six out of each 100 individuals get gut disease eventually in their lives.
On the off chance that they were all had an additional 50g of bacon a day for whatever remains of their lives then the danger would increment by 18% to around seven in 100 individuals getting inside growth.
"So that is one additional instance of entrail malignancy in every one of those 100 lifetime bacon-eaters," contended Sir David Spiegelhalter, a danger teacher from the University of Cambridge.
How terrible?
The WHO has arrive at the conclusion on the guidance of its International Agency for Research on Cancer, which surveys the best accessible investigative proof.
It has now put handled meat in the same class as plutonium, additionally liquor as they most likely cause disease.
In any case, this does not mean they are just as perilous. A bacon sandwich is not as awful as smoking.
"For an individual, the danger of creating colorectal (entrail) disease in light of their utilization of prepared meat stays little, yet this danger increments with the measure of meat expended," Dr Kurt Straif from the WHO said.
Assessments propose 34,000 passings from tumor consistently could be down to eating regimens high in handled meat.
That is as opposed to one million passings from tumor brought about by smoking and 600,000 ascribed to liquor every year.
Red meat has nourishing esteem as well and is a noteworthy wellspring of iron, zinc and vitamin B12.
Then again, the WHO said there was restricted confirmation that 100g of red meat a day expanded the danger of malignancy by 17%.
An eight ounce steak is 225g.
The WHO said its discoveries were critical for offering nations some assistance with giving adjusted dietary guidance.
Little mischief
Prof Tim Key, from the Cancer Research UK and the University of Oxford, said: "This choice doesn't mean you have to quit eating any red and prepared meat, yet in the event that you eat loads of it you might need to consider chopping down.
"Eating a bacon bap now and then isn't going to do much damage - having a solid eating regimen is about control."
Dr Teresa Norat, one of the guides to the WHO report and from Imperial College London, said there were numerous variables creating entrail growth.
She told BBC News site: "Individuals ought to breaking point utilization of red meat and abstain from expending prepared meat, however they ought to likewise have an eating routine rich in fiber, from leafy foods and keep up a sufficient body weight all through life and utmost the utilization of liquor and be physically dynamic."
The business body the Meat Advisory Panel said "evading red meat in the eating routine is not a defensive procedure against tumor" and said the center ought to be liquor, smoking and body weigh
