How to check if ham is real at home: experts explain

Ham is a meat preparation from the hind leg of a pig. Pork ham is spiced with garlic, rubbed with salt and pepper, and baked or smoked. In the markets, this product is sold with a huge price difference. You can buy it for 50 or 1050 hryvnias.

Journalist Kostyantyn Grubych investigated why there is such a difference in price. On his Facebook page, he also explained how to check at home whether you have bought a real ham.

Of course, the price depends on the quality of the product. But in the case of ham, it turned out that not all of it is prepared according to the classical technology from a whole piece of meat. Olena Sydorenko, a professor and product quality expert, says that nowadays you can buy ham that is a "food composition" that includes various additives, such as mechanically deboned meat, flavorings, etc.

The expert also says that a piece of high-quality cooked ham simply cannot be cheaper than a piece of raw meat, which is sold on the market for an average of 180 UAH. That means that ready-made ham cannot cost less either.

And of course, the fewer ingredients the finished ham contains, the better it will be. The composition of the meat itself should be at least 80%. And in order to check that you have purchased a really high-quality product, there is a great way - iodine. Just drop a few drops of iodine on a piece of cut sausage and wait 2-3 minutes. If the iodine turns blue or black, the product contains a lot of starch.