Spam (food)

Spam

A can of Spam
Course	Main course
Place of origin	United States
Creator	Hormel Foods Corporation
Serving temperature	Hot or cold
Main ingredients	Pork shoulder and ham
Other information	A canned precooked meat product

Spam (stylized SPAM) is a brand of canned precooked meat made by Hormel Foods Corporation. It was first introduced in 1937 and gained popularity worldwide after its use during World War II. By 2003, Spam was sold in 41 countries on six continents and trademarked in over 100 countries (except in Middle East and North Africa). In 2007, the seven billionth can of Spam was sold.

According to its label, Spam's basic ingredients are pork shoulder meat, with ham meat added, salt, water, modified potato starch as a binder, sugar, and sodium nitrite as a preservative. Natural gelatin forms during cooking in its tins on the production line. Many have raised concerns over Spam's nutritional attributes, in large part due to its high content of fat, sodium, and preservatives.

By the early 1970s the name "Spam" was often misused to describe any canned meat product containing pork, such as pork luncheon meat. With expansion in communications technology, it became the subject of urban legends about mystery meat and other appearances in pop culture. Most notable was a Monty Python sketch portraying Spam as tasting horrible, ubiquitous and inescapable, characteristics which led to its name being borrowed for unsolicited electronic messages, especially spam email.

Spam was introduced by Hormel in 1937. Ken Daigneau, brother of a company executive, won a $100 prize that year in a competition to name the new item. Hormel claims that the meaning of the name "is known by only a small circle of former Hormel Foods executives", but popular beliefs are that the name is an abbreviation of "spiced ham", "spare meat", or "shoulders of pork and ham". Another popular explanation is that Spam is an acronym standing for "Specially Processed American Meat" or "Specially Processed Army Meat".

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Wikipedia