It helped soldiers to feed in the Second World War and feed generations of American lunches – but the birthplace of Spam can now pay the price.
Austin, Minnesota – Proud nicknamed ‘Spam Town USA’ – is a quiet city of around 25,000 hidden in the southern agricultural land of the state
It was here in 1937 that Hormel Foods launched his iconic canned meat, a mix of pork, ham and preservatives that would become a global brand.
As soon as a thriving business city was built around meat packaging, Austin is struggling today with a health crisis: cancer.
Although cancer rates in Austin are statistically in accordance with the average over the entire state, according to the Minnesota Department of Health and the National Cancer Institute, they reflect a grim trend in the entire state.
Cancer has now overtaken heart conditions as the most important cause of death in Minnesota.
Experts say that it is not only a coincidence: it is a warning signal that is linked to lifestyle, diet and the type of ultra-processed food that once put cities like Austin on the map.
More than 37,000 Minnesotans are expected to be determined with cancer in 2025, and according to the state projections, more than 10,000 will die from the disease.
It is a love or hate the meat product. But regardless of the flavors of people, Spam landed the modest condition of Minnesota on the World Food Map in the 1930s when it first got on the shelves
In Austin and similar cities, where processed meat production is central to the local economy and culture, there are questions about the consequences for the long -term health consequences that have made them famous.
“Although it would be scientifically inaccurate to say that spam causes cancer, there are some well -documented health problems in connection with processed meat, including spam, which are worth mentioning,” Dr. Darin Detwiler, an expert in food safety who has advised both the FDA and USDA.
Then it is even known that the factory conditions cause diseases.
In 2006, Austin experienced a series of inexplicable diseases in employees at the Quality Pork Processors Meatpacking Plant, which supplies pork to Hormel Foods, the makers of spam.
The symptoms include fatigue, pain, weakness and numbness. A neurological disease was later linked to the ‘front table’ where employees blow pork brain with the help of compressed air, which may inhale processed brain material.
Mayo Clinic researchers identified an antibody with the affected employees who focused on their nerves.
Spam was invented as a smart solution for a business problem: how to use profitable pork shoulder and then to be considered a waste.
Hormel’s answer was a canned meat made from pork, ham, salt, water, modified potato starch and sodium nitrite.
Although many people have avoided the product because of these concerns, it remains enormously popular in Minnesota and consume more than a million cans per year
Dozens of restaurants and food sellers throughout the state use the product in dishes, with one of the most popular ways to prepare it for a piece of rice such as ‘Musubi’ Sushi (photo)
The mixture is ground, formed in blocks, cooked and sealed under the now famous blue-oriented label.
The gelatinous glaze is reached with the help of meat broth that solidifies while cooling.
Spam soon became a staple from the depression era and later a military ration, celebrated for its long shelf life and versatility.
Nowadays, more than 1 million cans are only consumed in Minnesota every year.
Austin is still the home of Hormel’s headquarters and a popular spamm museum, and the product remains a beloved fixture on local menu’s sushi style musubi, fried comics, breakfast pancakes, hamburgers and more.
But the science behind processed meat tells a more disturbing story.
In 2015, the International Agency for research by the World Health Organization for research into Cancer -classified meat – including spam – as carcinogenic substances of group 1.
That places them in the same category as tobacco and asbestos in terms of the strength of evidence that links them to cancer, in particular colorectal cancer.
“Consuming about 50 grams daily processes a third of a can of spam is associated with an 18 percent increased risk of colorectal cancer,” Dr. Detwiler to DailyMail.com.
“The care is in ingredients such as nitrates and nitrites, which can form carcinogenic connections, and with cooking methods that produce harmful chemicals.”
Dr. Marion Nestle, a leading nutritionist and former professor at New York University, repeated those worries.
‘Processed meat is associated with the risk of cancer. Spam is being processed, “she said.
A graph with rates for all cancers combined in Minnesota from 1988 to 2022
In addition to cancer, the nutrition profile of spam increases red flags for other chronic conditions.
A portion of 100 grams contains 315 calories, 27 grams of fat (including 10 grams of saturated fat) and 1.4 grams of sodium lake than 80 percent of the recommended daily intake for both saturated fat and salt.
That is a serious care in a state where two -thirds of the adults are already overweight or obese, and where type 2 diabetes and heart conditions also increase.
But in Austin, where Hormel is not only a food brand, but a large employer and source of local pride, Spam remains deeply embedded in daily life.
Food sellers and dinners in the city continue to offer creative spam dishes, and the annual spamjam festival attracts crowds from the entire region.
Dr. Detwiler says that incidental consumption will probably not damage most people, but routine, long-term intake is a different story.
“Incidental consumption in the extent, it is unlikely that it will be serious health risks for most people,” said Dr. Detwiler.
But the greater care is on routine, long -term consumption, especially as part of a diet with little fiber and fresh products.
Hormel Foods did not respond to a request for comment from the Daily Mail.
Public health officials emphasize that no food is the fault of the cancer epidemic who sweeps Minnesota.
But with a high percentages of cancer that even in small cities such as Austin persist – places that have helped build the processed meat industry from the ground – many experts believe that it is time to reconsider the food that we have long taken for granted.
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