UK ham processors blasted for selling 'cocktail' of water, additives

By Ahmed ElAmin

- Last updated on GMT

In the run up to the Christmas season ham processors in the UK took
a potentially critical sales hit today from a consumer watchdog,
which blasted them for selling mostly 'acocktail of water and
additives' and for hiding the fact from the public.

The attack by Which?, an advocacy group funded by the Consumers Association, could hurt food processors sales as the public turns to more healthier alternatives. The results are beingpublished in the run up to the Christmas season, a period of increased sales for ham producers.

"Some well-known brands of ham contain more water and additives and less meat than you'd expect,"​ Which? said after analysing samples from 27 well-known brands sold in the UK.

In publishing the results Which? is taking the British Meat Processors Association to task, claiming that its members are not following a voluntary industry code on the labelling of ham and hamproducts.

By law, producers have to declare the percentage of pork in packaged ham. They also have to label water as an ingredient if it constitutes more than five per cent of a cold meat product, but theydon't have to say how much has been added. Which? is calling for an end to the legal loophole.

All but one producer admitted on the front of the pack that they had added water, Which? stated. The exception was Bernard Matthews wafer thin cooked ham, which tucked this information away on theback. It also charged the most for water; 25p of the price of an 89p pack of ham is actually being spent on its 28 per cent of water.

"We want food companies to spell out exactly how much water they've pumped into their ham on the front of packs, so people can easily see how much they're paying for meat, and how much forwater and additives,"​ stated Malcolm Coles, editor of Which? magazine. "As long as a legal loophole lets companies avoid admitting how much water ham contains, consumers risk beingsold a pig in a poke."

No one at the meat association was available to make a comment to FoodProductionDaily.com as at publication time today.

One brand had almost as much water and additives as meat, Which? tests have uncovered. Those making canned and re-formed hams were among the worst offenders.

The four samples tested in the category contained between 21 per cent and 37 per cent added water, Which? stated.

Of the 27 samples of ham there were just two ingredients common to all -- pork and salt.

"Most of the premium hams contained very little more than that but others had much longer lists of ingredients,"​ the consumer group stated. "Between them, the hams rackedup 40 extra ingredients."

Christmas hamper staple Ye Olde Oak ham was made up of 55 per cent meat. A third of the product was composed of water. This means nearly half of each mouthful isn't meat, but a mixture of water andadditives, Which? stated.

"Wafer thin hams were also pretty watery,"​ Which? stated.

The worst example, Bernard Matthews wafer thin cooked ham, was over a quarter added water. Marks and Spencer's Danish wafer thin ham contained 18 per cent added water.

Budget offerings from the four largest supermarket chains contained between 16 and 25 per cent added water. These were Sainsbury's Basic Cooked Ham, Asda's Rollback Smart Price Thin Sliced Ham,Tesco's Value Cooked Ham, and Morrisons' Bettabuy Cooked Ham.

Waitrose's British wafer-thin smoked ham was the exception, with less than one per cent added water.

In 1985, the British Meat Processors Association and the Local Authorities Coordinators of Regulatory Services (LACORS) drew up a voluntary industry code to assist manufacturers in the labelling ofham and ham products.

The code of practice on the labelling of re-formed and cured meat products lists three categories of ham product for labelling purposes: ham, formed ham and re-formed ham.

Ham is meat that comes from one whole, cured leg of pork. 'Formed' ham is made of several pieces of meat from more than one leg of pork, shaped into a joint before cooking and slicing. 'Re-formed'ham is meat that has been "rearranged" and comprises muscles of more than one leg with the addition of finely comminuted meat or meat emulsion, before being shaped, cooked and sliced.

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