Luncheon meat

Luncheon meat (canned luncheon meat, luncheon loaf) is finely comminuted cured meat or poultry, sometimes smoked, with or without binders. That is how Codex Alimentarius standard CXS 89-1981 defines it. Unlike the corned beef standard, this one does not insist on a can, but most luncheon meat is sterilised in one and kept without a fridge.

The best-known example is SPAM. According to Hormel, it was first introduced on 5 July 1937 in Austin, Minnesota, towards the end of the Great Depression, as cheap protein with a long shelf life. Ken Daigneau, brother of a company vice-president, named it by winning a contest. During the Second World War, Hormel says, more than 100 million pounds of SPAM went abroad to feed allied troops. Americans turned luncheon meat into a global can.

What is in the can? Under Codex the essentials are meat or poultry without offal, water, salt and sodium or potassium nitrite. Optional extras include offal, fat, pork rind, starch, bread, milk powder, egg or vegetable protein, sugar and spices. For SPAM Classic, Hormel lists six ingredients: pork with ham, salt, water, potato starch, sugar and sodium nitrite.

How is it made? At Hormel the pork and ham are pre-ground, then salt, sugar and the rest are mixed in. The mass goes into 12-ounce cans, which are vacuum-sealed, cooked and cooled for about three hours. FAO gives 112–115 °C as the sterilising temperature for luncheon meat.

Codex sets numbers on the recipe: at least 80 % meat when binders are used, 90 % without binders and offal. Fat is capped at 35 % and 30 % respectively. In Spain, RD 474/2014 lists «chóped enlatado» among sterilised products.

Corned beef on the next shelf is quite different: beef only, cured, more coarsely cut, with at least 21 % protein. Spam is the brand most people picture, but luncheon meat is the wider category, and it may be pork or poultry. And sliced deli meats from the chiller, says USDA FSIS, keep 2 weeks unopened and 3–5 days opened, so do not treat them like a can.

In the UK and US the can must carry the name «Luncheon Meat» in English, and you will find it in the tinned-meat aisle of supermarkets, next to the corned beef. If the product will not keep 18 months, Codex requires a full date of day, month and year.

Why this matters to you: an unopened can lasts 2–5 years, but an opened one should be eaten within 3–4 days. Watch the salt too: 100 g of pork-and-ham luncheon meat has 315 kcal and 1410 mg of sodium, according to USDA. Other cans are covered under Canned meat.