Course:FNH200/2011w Team22 Spam

SPAM®

WHAT IS SPAM®

SPAM® (from the word “Spiced Ham”) is a brand of canned luncheon meat product developed by the Hormel Foods Corporation, first introduced in 1937. Containing ham, pork, salt, flavorings, and preservatives, SPAM® is the original and the best-selling brand among other canned pork meat products.

Although originated in the United States, SPAM® has made its way so that it could be seen in shops all over the world. Certain cultures such as the Hawai'ians incorporate SPAM® into their cuisine. Festivals centered around this luncheon meat are also being practiced.

Even with its worldwide success, most SPAM® remains a mysterious, pink, canned meat from urban legends and popular media. When considering the nature of SPAM®, the usual questions arise:

1. How did SPAM® originate?
2. What are its ingredients and additives?
3. How is SPAM® created?
4. What contributes to its indefinite shelf life?

Of course some may also wonder about the quality of SPAM®, and for the daring: What is SPAM® musubi and how is it prepared?

HISTORY OF SPAM®

The Hormel company in Minnesota had a successful fresh-meat business, yet Jay Hormel -- the son of the founder of the Hormel company, George A. Hormel -- had big plans for his father's company. All fresh meats looked similar and were bound by seasonal changes in meat supply, so Jay Hormel decided to make Hormel products stand out, which led to the creation of canned meat . Hormel first brought out canned ham in 1926, and soon after found that his product was being imitated by other companies. As a result, Hormel added spices to his canned ham to make it unique. In the early 1930’s, many companies were producing canned pork in big containers, and used the lips, snouts, and ears in their meats. Hormel, instead, used the shoulder of the pig. Hormel’s canned meat was superior and more expensive than its competition’s, but once the can was opened it was indistinguishable from the competition’s. Jay Hormel was always thinking of ways to separate his product from the rest, so he decided to reduce the size of the can so it was family-sized and create a distinctive label . A problem arose when trying to develop the perfect canned meat, which was the amount of juice leftover in the can after the canning process. As the heat cooked the meat in a sealed can, cells broke down and released an excessive amount of juice . Through much experimentation, Hormel discovered that an exact amount of heat and salt must be used, and that the meat must be mixed and canned in a vacuum in order to minimize the juice released while cooking . After holding a competition for the most suitable name for this product, the first can of SPAM®, as it came to be known, was produced in 1937 in Austin, Minnesota. It was the only product at that time that had a low price, was convenient, and had a delicious taste .

WWII cemented SPAM®’s reputation in the U.S. and introduced it to consumers across the globe. Before the U.S. entered WWII, SPAM® was one of the foods shipped to Allied countries as part of the lend-lease program. When American soldiers went to fight, they had SPAM® in their K-rations . Hormel shipped 15 million cans of SPAM® to Allied troops overseas every week during WWII. SPAM® often served as the last line of defense between battle-weary soldiers and starvation . As a result, world leaders, such as Eisenhower, Margaret Thatcher, and Nikita Khrushchev, credited SPAM® for its effectiveness. After the Second World War, Hormel began actively advertising the product, getting big names to endorse it. Plants overseas also began producing SPAM® and by 1959, Hormel had manufactured its billionth can .

By 1962, the 12-oz can was joined by a 7-oz can for single people and small families. Additional innovations included SPAM® with cheese chunks and smoke-flavored product (in 1972) and SPAM®-Lite (in 1992). A dramatic new label occurred in 1997, and both the old and new version entered the Smithsonian .

INGREDIENTS

SPAM® Classic

• Pork
• Salt
• Water
• Modified Potato Starch
• Sugar
• Sodium Nitrite

Weighing in at the highest (being the main ingredient) is pork. The pork used in SPAM® is 90% from the shoulder of the pig and the remaining pork is ham derived from the buttock and thigh of the pig. For all you skeptics out there, the USDA does not allow any 'scrap' portions of the pig, being the snout, lips, or ears, into the SPAM production.

Water is used as a binding agent in SPAM®, where sugar and salt are used as flavour agents. Salt also contributes to increasing the shelf-life of SPAM®.

Wondering where the pink colour of SPAM® comes from? The sodium nitrite gives the pork this appealing pink colour, otherwise it would turn a brownish colour..

Additives

According to Canada's additive dictionary, the only ingredient in the original SPAM® considered to be an additive is sodium nitrite. Sodium nitrite is used in SPAM® as a preservation agent which prevents microbial growth and enzymatic reactions, which increases the product's shelf life. Sodium nitrite is considered to be an anti-microbial agent which prevents the growth of bacteria such as Clostridium botulinum, more commonly known as botulism .

There are many debates as to whether or not sodium nitrites should be added to meats such as SPAM®. The risks and benefits must be weighed out when choosing to consume foods that contain sodium nitrites. Because this additive is an anti-mocrobial agent, it reduces the consumer's risk of suffering from illness from this canned meat product . On the other hand, sodium nitrite is considered to be a dietary carcinogen which may contribute to different types of cancers in humans. It must be kept in mind that there are regulations as to how much sodium nitrite is added to certain foods in order to avoid the harmful effects.

Clostridium botulinium

Clostridium botulinium is a bacteria that causes the foodborne illness botulism, that when canned meats such as SPAM® are not processed properly, can cause symptoms in humans of all ages and health. Symptoms of foodborne botulism, being mild to severe, may include abdominal pains, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and possible respiratory paralysis. Botulism may affect cranial neuropathies and symptoms may include drooping eyelids, swallowing difficulties, dry mouth, and difficulty speaking. In order for SPAM® to avoid the growth of C. botulinium they must consider temperature, pH levels, water activity, redox potential, preservatives, and other competing microrganisms when canning the pork. . The use of sodium nitrite, as discussed earlier, along with proper canning techniques are the most appropriate methods for limiting the growth of C. botulinium.

CANNING PROCESS

Hydrostatic Retort

Presently, the Hormel company does not butcher its own pigs. Instead the meat is bought and brought into the processing plant. The purchased meats are pork shoulders and ham. They are cut apart in the plant; the pork shoulders are dropped into a hydraulic press that squeezes the meat off of the bone, and the meat is then placed onto a large gondola or basket. The ham meat is hand-cut from the bone by workers -- also referred to as Meat-Cutters -- and then separated and sorted from the shanks in the ham trim lines. They are hand-sorted into "white" and "red" ham meat. The ham meat pieces that are placed into the "white" gondola are the whitest and fattiest pieces, and the "red" pieces contain more lean meat. The gondolas that are full of meat (ham and pork shoulder) are left in the refrigerated area until needed.

When they are needed, the gondolas are taken from the refrigerated area to the main floor where a metal crane-like machine dumps the meat into a metal trough containing a drill. In the trough, the meat is ground up thoroughly. The batch at this step in the process weighs 8000 pounds, and a metal detector is used to catch any lost knives or other misplaced mixing components within the batch. Also in this step, a SPAM® sample is analyzed to make sure it has the correct mixture of pork to ham (white to red).

The batch is then divided and placed into multiple vacuum mixers by the gondolas. The mixers resemble gas grills, but they have ammonia refrigeration in the outer core of the machine to bring the meat temperature down to 0 Celsius. Other ingredients, salt, sugar, water and sodium nitrite are added into the mixer. The lid is then closed to create vacuum-sealed environment, and the batch is then mixed.

The batch is under a certain environment:

1. vacuum
2. chilled temperature
3. added salt

These conditions decrease the volume of juice released from the meat when it is cooked. The problem with large amounts of juice being released during cooking is that the final canned product would have an excess amount of gelatin, which is undesired.

While the meat is being mixed, another machine pushes empty, upside down SPAM® cans off of the storage pallets (one at a time). The cans (which have not been labeled yet) are pushed onto the conveyor belt and sent toward the filler.

The next step in the process involves moving the SPAM® from the mixer manually and dumping it into the receivers. From there, the SPAM® travels to cone-shaped fillers via pipes. For the filling process, the cans move on a conveyer belt. As a device picks each can up, the raw SPAM® is deposited into it through the cone-shaped fillers.

The next step involves a closing machine which seals of the can. The can is stamped with an identifying code. Unlike the canning process discussed in class, SPAM® is cooked in a hydrostatic cooker. Sixty six thousand cans travel through 11 chambers for nearly two hours to finish the cooking process. By the end they are sterilized, cleaned and cooled.

The method for SPAM® cooking is not the standard retort used for most Canning processes in North America. Instead, a hydrostatic cooker, or retort, is used. This system consists of two phases; water and steam. The cans initially enter into the cooker through a thin water filled chamber near the top of the retort. As the cans descend the water temperature increases until it enters the main chamber. This chamber is filled with water at its base and steam in the upper section. The cans travel on conveyer belts up and down through the steam for the required duration of time (12D). The cans then travel up a chamber similar to the one it entered through. The processing is complete when the cans enter the cooling chamber which is filled with cold water. As the cans leave the hydrostatic cooker, a machine attaches a polypropylene label onto each of the cans. The cans are then sealed into cardboard boxes and stamped with a time, date, and other identifying numbers. At this point in the process, the boxes of SPAM® are stored onto pallets and held for 10 days, undergoing extensive testing to ensure that the meat has been properly processed and safe for consumption.

QUALITY CONTROL

Hormel would likely agree that SPAM® begins with quality pork and ham. Hormel no longer supplies its own meat for SPAM®, but the company chooses the meat carefully from others. Meat-cutters who cut the meat from the ham carefully perform their tasks and throw the pieces into the appropriate gondola.

Also, the huge hydrostatic cooker has an alarm that trips if the computer detects any problems with the batch. Workers must fix the problem within three minutes. If they fail to do so, the entire batch's viability is in question.

Portions of each batch are examined to make sure the batch has the right amount of pork shoulder to ham. The U.S. Department of Agriculture does not permit any SPAM® cans to leave the processing plant for 10 days. One out of every 1,000 cans must be subjected to a 100°F (38°C) test to see if the can bulges or shows any other signs of improper cooking. The bacteria content is also tested.

Finally, taste tests are routine at Hormel Foods Corporation. Every Friday all executives involved in SPAM® production meet to visually inspect (and sometimes taste) several different batches of SPAM® produced during the week.

SUMMARY

There are many common misconceptions regarding SPAM®, which have led to the development of acronyms such as, “Something Posing As Meat” and “Spare Parts of American Meat.” However, SPAM® ingredients are carefully chosen to meet USDA standards; there are no porcine scraps permitted in the product. Contrary to what the uninformed may believe, SPAM® contains only sodium nitrite as a preservative, and is regulated in Canada at a maximum 20g/100kg of meat product. It is a combination of sodium nitrite, the 12D thermal processing procedure, and a vacuum sealed can, that allow SPAM® to have an indefinite shelf life.

SPAM® FACTS

There are 11 varieties of SPAM® products:

• SPAM® Classic
• SPAM® Classic Singles
• SPAM® Hot & Spicy With Tobasco
• SPAM® Less Sodium
• SPAM® Lite
• SPAM® Oven Roasted Turkey
• SPAM® Single Lite
• SPAM® Smoked
• SPAM® Spread
• SPAM® With Bacon
• SPAM® With Cheese

Originally introduced by the US military during their occupation in World War II, Hawaii, Guam and Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands holds the highest number of the consumption of SPAM®. In Japan, SPAM® is incorporated into many dishes in the Okinawa region.

The origin of the acronym SPAM® for the product name has several speculations: one is “SPiced hAM”, the other is “Shoulder of Pork And HaM” and “Something Posing As Meat”

SPAM® Celebrations

SPAM® is celebrated in the local town of Austin, Minnesota where the Hormel’s headquarter is. This festival is known as SPAM® Jam, is a carnival type of celebration that is held on the 4th of July (Independence Day), where fireworks and parades are centered around SPAM®.

This celebration is also held in Waikiki, Hawaii annually; it’s celebrated during the last week of April. It became a popular festival due to its great food and family friendly atmosphere. During this period, many of Hawaii's finest restaurants would serve SPAM® in various ways.

SPAM® Recipes-Spam Musubi

~Ingredients~

2 cups uncooked short-grain white rice

2 cups water

6 tablespoons rice vinegar

1/4 cup soy sauce

1/4 cup oyster sauce

1/2 cup white sugar

1 (12 ounce) container fully cooked luncheon meat (e.g. SPAM®)

5 sheets sushi nori (dry seaweed)

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

~Directions~

1. Soak uncooked rice for 4 hours; drain and rinse.
2. In a saucepan bring 2 cups water to a boil. Add rice and stir. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 20 minutes. Stir in rice vinegar, and set aside to cool.
3. In a separate bowl, stir together soy sauce, oyster sauce, and sugar until sugar is completely dissolved. Slice luncheon meat lengthwise into 10 slices, or to desired thickness, and marinate in sauce for 5 minutes.
4. In a large skillet, heat oil over medium high heat. Cook slices for 2 minutes per side, or until lightly browned. Cut nori sheets in half and lay on a flat work surface. Place a rice press in the center of the sheet, and press rice tightly inside. Top with a slice of luncheon meat, and remove press. Wrap nori around rice mold, sealing edges with a small amount of water. (Rice may also be formed by hand in the shape of the meat slices, 1 inch thick.) Musubi may be served warm or chilled.