• Date of Birth = July 5th, 1937 and was named by Kenneth Daigneau, who was the brother of a Hormel VP in response to a contest of what to name Hormel’s Spiced Ham product. He received a $100 which is about $1500 in 2010 money
• Hormel officials have stated that SPAM means Shoulder of Pork and Ham.
• Ingredients: chopped pork shoulder meat with ham meat added, salt, water, modified potato starch as a binder, and sodium nitrite to help keep its color.
• Other’s believe the name means…"Something Posing As Meat", "Specially Processed Artificial Meat", "Stuff, Pork and Ham", "Spare Parts Animal Meat" and "Special Product of Austin Minnesota (home of Hormel)
• The glaze on the meat (or aspic) comes from the meat cooling
• There are currently 13 different flavors / varieties of SPAM sold
• 3.6% of a can of SPAM is salt
• Hormel sells SPAM hot dogs
• Hormel hired George Burns and Gracie Allen to advertise SPAM on their radio show in the 1940s.
• As of 2003, Hormel sells SPAM in 41 countries
• Which state / territory in the US eats the most SPAM? = Hawaii and the territories of Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) with the avg. person of Guam eating 16 tins of SPAM a year & the average Hawaiian eating 12 cans. It’s also called “the Hawaiian Steak.”
• McDonald’s in CNMI & Burger King in Hawaii sell SPAM on their menus
• Austin, Minnesota holds the annual SPAM JAM the weekend of July 4th each year which includes parades & fireworks. This is also where most of the SPAM is produced for the US and where you can go to see the official SPAM museum
• On March 22, 1994, Hormel Foods Corporation celebrated the production of its five billionth can of SPAM. In 2007, the seven billionth can was sold.
• Americans consume 113 million cans of SPAM a year
• Hormel produces 44,000 cans of SPAM an HOUR.
