How to Read a Ham and Sausage Label: PDO, PGI, TSG, Nitrite
A cured ham or salami label tells you where the meat was made, how long it aged and what was added. These 15 terms cover the EU protected names, the colour seals on Spanish Iberian ham, the main ways of curing and the lines in the ingredients list. Every fact is checked against EU and national law, producers' official rules or the WHO cancer agency.
Protected names
Three EU logos protect cured meats. They differ in how closely the product is tied to its place.
- 🏷️ Protected designation of origin (PDO) (PDO (protected designation of origin))
- Every stage of production happens in one defined area under registered rules. Prosciutto di Parma is a PDO: only hind legs of Italian heavy pigs and sea salt, aged at least 14 months.
- Protected cured meat names (PGI (protected geographical indication))
- At least one stage, usually curing and ageing, happens in the named area, but the pigs may come from elsewhere. Jambon de Bayonne and Schwarzwälder Schinken are PGIs.
- Traditional speciality guaranteed (TSG) (TSG (traditional speciality guaranteed))
- Protects a traditional recipe or method, not a place: it can be made anywhere if the rules are followed. Jamón Serrano and Kabanosy are TSGs.
Spanish Iberian ham
Spain sets one law for Iberian ham, shoulder and loin: Royal Decree 4/2014.
- 🍖 Jamón ibérico (The sales name)
- Three words in fixed order: product, feeding and breed, for example «jamón de bellota 100% ibérico». Bellota means the pig fattened on acorns in the dehesa; cebo de campo means feed outdoors; cebo means feed on a farm.
- Iberian ham labels: black, red, green, white (Black, red, green, white seal)
- A numbered seal on the leg shows the class: black for de bellota 100% ibérico, red for de bellota ibérico, green for de cebo de campo ibérico, white for de cebo ibérico.
- Pata negra
- The law allows this phrase only on de bellota 100% ibérico, the black-seal class.
- Jamón (Curing time)
- Iberian ham is cured at least 600 days from salting, or 730 days if it weighs 7 kg or more. Jamón Serrano, a TSG, is cured at least 210 days.
How it was made
- Curing of meat (Curing)
- Treatment with salt, often with nitrite: rubbed on dry, as brine or by injection. Injected meat is ready faster but tastes milder, is softer and keeps for much less time.
- Dry-cured hams and shoulders (Dry-cured ham)
- A whole leg salted, dried and aged for months or years. It is never cooked and is eaten raw in thin slices.
- Dry-cured sausages (Dry-cured sausage)
- Chopped meat and fat fermented and dried in a casing, for example salami, chorizo or fuet. It is not cooked either.
- Smoking of meat (Smoked)
- Cold smoke flavours meat over days without cooking it; hot smoke cooks it. Kabanosy are hot-smoked and baked to at least 70 °C inside, so unlike salami they are a cooked product.
- Noble mould on dry sausages (White coat on the casing)
- A thin white powdery coat on salami or fuet is a deliberate noble mould of Penicillium. Green, black or coloured spots are not part of the product.
Ingredients and dates
- Nitrite and nitrate in cured meats (E 249–E 252) (Nitrite and nitrate (E 249–E 252))
- Preservatives listed as, for example, «preservative: sodium nitrite». Since 9 October 2025 the EU allows at most 80 mg/kg of added nitrite in most meat products. Prosciutto di Parma uses sea salt only.
- Best before and use by dates (Best before or use by)
- Best before is about quality; use by is about safety and appears on highly perishable foods. After opening a sliced pack, follow the storage line on the label.
- Processed meat and cancer: what IARC (WHO) said (Processed meat and health)
- In 2015 IARC, the WHO cancer agency, put processed meat in Group 1: each 50 g eaten daily raises the relative risk of colorectal cancer by about 18%. The risk for one person is small and grows with the amount eaten.
Sources
- European Commission: Geographical indications and quality schemes explained (PDO, PGI, TSG)
- Real Decreto 4/2014, norma de calidad del jamón, la paleta y la caña de lomo ibéricos (BOE)
- Real Decreto 474/2014, norma de calidad de derivados cárnicos (BOE)
- Commission Regulation (EU) 2023/2108 on nitrites and nitrates (Official Journal, BOE mirror)
- Consorzio del Prosciutto di Parma: Disciplinare di produzione (17.05.2025)
- FAO: Meat processing technology for small- to medium-scale producers (2007)
- Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 on food information to consumers
- IARC press release No 240: carcinogenicity of red and processed meat (2015)
Themes
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