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Danes save Spam's bacon

In future, Spam will be made in Denmark. 140 jobs are going with the closure of the Newforge factory in Liverpool.

It is the end of the line for the production of Spam in Britain - a food that has fed millions and survived the ridicule of many, including the scathing satire of Monty Python.

The UK, together with South Korea, remains one of the largest markets for Spam.

When Hormel Foods started work on developing America's first canned ham in 1926, little did it know it would become a cult product.

The product was marketed as 'Hormel Spiced Ham' - a name that failed to capture the imagination of the nation. Sales suffered as other companies produced copies of popular canned ham.

Hormel fought back, offering $100 for whoever came up with a truly catchy name.

The winner was Kenneth Daigneau, an actor and the brother of a Hormel executive. The name was, of course, Spam, a contraction of spiced and ham.

Spam was unleashed on the world with a high-profile advertising campaign in mid-1937, dubbing it ''the Miracle Meat.'

Sales boomed during the Second World War. Spam was a great product for the military as it required no refrigeration.

Since it was not rationed as beef was it became a prime staple on army menus and a cheap favourite with civilians.

To this day it remains popular with soldiers. In 1989, the US armed forces bought 3.3 million pounds of the pork luncheon meat.

Over five billion tins of Spam have been sold. If they were placed end to end, they would go around the world ten times.

Despite the closure of the Liverpool factory, the production of Spam goes on. With sales in 45 countries and 60 million people in America alone eating Spam, the future of this so-called miracle meat seems assured.

Internet Links

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Monty Python Spam sketch transcript

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