Spam has been a popular type of food ever since it was introduced in the 1930s, and over eight billion cans of it have been sold around the world.

Spam was first introduced in the 1937 in the middle of the Great Depression, when fresh pork was too expensive for most Americans to buy. Spam was very much in demand a few years later during World War II, with the military purchasing 150 million pounds of Spam by the end of it.

The spam website states that there are only six ingredients: pork with ham, salt, water, potato starch, sugar, and sodium nitrite. Mental Floss reported that spam’s “name was suggested by Kenneth Daigneau, an actor who received the $100 prize in a contest Hormel had sponsored.”

The biggest consumer of Spam is Hawaii, where it is very popular.

“Hawaii eats seven million cans of Spam products every year,” the Spam website explained. The second biggest consumer of Spam is South Korea, where it is used in a variety of different foods. On top of the original flavor, other flavors of Spam include Spam Lite, Spam Bacon, Spam Turkey, Spam Teriyaki, Spam Cheese, Spam Garlic, Spam Black Pepper, Spam Hickory Smoke, and Spam Portuguese Sausage.

Believe it or not, there is a museum dedicated to Spam in Austin, Minnesota. The museum says on their website that their facility “pays tribute to its presence across the world.” The Spam website describes the product’s taste as, “In a word: magic.Of course, we’re biased, and if you haven’t had the good fortune of tasting magic before, that won’t tell you much. Speaking objectively, they taste kinda like ham. They also taste a little like pork roast.”

Who knew that there was so much to know about Spam!

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