Fun SPAM Facts!

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According to the official SPAM press release from Hormel:

  • In America, it's consumed at the rate of 3.8 cans a second by more than 60 million Americans.
  • It's trademarked in 92 countries, and sold in 45, from Anguilla to Zimbabwe
  • If laid end-to-end, 5 billion cans would encircle the earth 12 1/2 times
  • 5 billion cans of SPAM would feed a family of four, three meals a day, for 4,566,210 years
  • You can grill more than 29 billion SPAMburgers with it, and that supply would last 5.4 days if everyone on Earth ate one spamburger for dinner each night
  • Each year, 100 million pounds (45 million kg) of SPAM are sold around the world.
  • SPAM is made in two U.S. locations - Austin, Minnesota, and Fremont, Nebraska - and seven other countries: England, Australia, Denmark, Phillipines, Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea.
  • The average consumers of Spam are families with several children, especially in the southeastern U.S.
  • In 1989, the U.S. armed forces bought 3.3 million pounds of SPAM.
  • Hawaii, Alaska, Arkansas, Texas, and Alabama rate the highest in SPAM consumption respectively.
  • Among the 50 foreign countries where SPAM is sold, the UK and South Korea are the largest markets.
  • In South Korea, SPAM is considered an upscale food and one of the most popular American imports. The Wall Street Journal recently spotted a Seoul executive in search of the perfect gift. The executive deliberately skipped over traditional gift items such as wine and chocolates in favor of SPAM, explaining, "It is an impressive gift."
  • Hormel PR man Allen Krejci says: "SPAM has endured because of it's convenience and versatility. You can eat it hot or cold. You slice, dice, or cube it. You can eat it for breakfast, lunch, dinner, or snacks. In fact, the only thing that limits your use of SPAM is your imagination."
  • Nikita Krushchev once credited SPAM with the survival of the WWII Russian army. ''Without SPAM, we wouldn't have been able to feed our army,'' he said.
  • Senator Robert Byrd of West Viginia eats a sandwich of SPAM and mayonnaise on white bread three times a week.

    • How did SPAM get its name?

    Kenneth Daigneau, an actor and the brother of a Hormel executive won $100 in a meat-naming contest in 1936. Hormel was looking for a good name for a spiced ham product made with pork shoulder, since other companys had started copying their popular canned spiced ham. The name "Spam" is a contraction of "spiced" and "ham", which is rather odd since there are no spices in it anyway.

     

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