Processed meat refers to any meat that has been transformed through one or several of the following processes: smoking, fermentation, curing, salting, air-drying, heating, or other processes to enhance flavour or improve preservation. This includes ham, bacon, sausages, tinned meat, etc.
Normally processed meats are made from pork or beef, but may also include other red meats, poultry, offal, or meat by-products such as blood.
The beginning of meat processing is lost in antiquity but possibly began when primitive man first learned that salt is an effective preservative, and that cooking prolongs the keeping quality of fresh meat.
Ancient record shows that preservation of meat products by ancient Egyptians is done by salting and sun-drying. The early Romans people are credited with being the first to use ice and snow as a means of preserving food.
Ground beef is the most highly known example of a fresh processed meat product. Cured and processed meat products make up a large number of the processed meat items sold in the United States and Europe.
Processed meat has been associated to coronary heart disease. Studies in the last decade also provided an overwhelming support that high consumption of fresh red meat and processed meat are linked with an elevated risk of developing bowel cancer, especially colorectal carcinoma, as well as stomach, pancreas and prostate cancers.
Processed Meat
