Spam is an abbreviation for: Special Processed American Meat.
It is a simple shortening of “spiced ham” or “shoulders of pork and ham.
Spam only contains six ingredients: pork with ham meat added (that counts as one), salt, water, potato starch, sugar, and sodium nitrite.
To make spam, the ground-up pork and ham are mixed with the other ingredients for 20 minutes.
When the mixture reaches the correct temperature, it is put into the cans, which are then vacuum-sealed.
The cans are cooked and then cooled for three hours, after which they are ready for their labels.
The US company Hormel Foods introduced spam luncheon meat in 1937.
According to the official spam story, the name was the brainchild of Ken Daigneau, brother of Hormel Food's VP, who won $100 in the contest to name Spam.
As a food item although spam is convenient, easy to use and has a long shelf-life, it's also very high in fat, calories and sodium but low in important nutrients such as protein, vitamins and minerals.
Additionally, it is highly processed and contains preservatives like sodium nitrite that may cause several adverse health effects in humans.
In addition to the normal spam flavour there over 20 varieties of flavoured spam that have been produced over the years.