Packaging decides as much as quality in sliced delicatessen products. The right product loses its advantage when bought in the wrong size.
Which pack sizes exist?
Sliced beef ham sells in four main sizes.
A fifty-gram single pack; it holds a slice or two and generally gets made for vending or single service.
A hundred-gram pack; the most widespread retail size.
A two-hundred-gram family pack.
Bulk packs of five hundred grams and above, for businesses and large households.
The price per kilogram falls as the size rises, but because the life after opening stays the same that advantage does not always materialise.
| Size | Slices | For how many | Price per kilo |
|---|---|---|---|
| 50 g | 2-3 | One person, one meal | Highest |
| 100 g | 5-6 | One or two people, two days | High |
| 200 g | 10-12 | Three or four people, two or three days | Medium |
| 500 g | 25-30 | A large household | Low |
| 1 kg | 50-60 | A business | Lowest |
How does household size guide the choice?
The decision rests on how many days it takes to finish once opened.
A hundred-gram pack suits a single-person household; it gets eaten in two or three days.
A hundred or two hundred grams in a household of two.
Two hundred grams in a household of three or four; half goes at a single breakfast.
A five-hundred-gram pack only makes sense in households with high daily consumption.
Otherwise the product stays open five or six days; the slices dry during that period, their edges darken and the last third generally goes in the bin.
How long does it last once opened?
That is a fact independent of the pack size.
An unopened vacuum pack keeps to the date on its label, generally three or four weeks.
Three to five days once opened.
Sliced product deteriorates faster than a whole piece.
The reason is surface area; a factor of ten separates the surface area of a kilogram of whole ham from the same weight sliced.
Because both bacterial growth and oxidation begin at the surface, both accelerate in a sliced product.
What separates vacuum from MAP?
The two packaging technologies give different results.
The air gets drawn out entirely in a vacuum pack.
The slices stick together.
Separating them is difficult, but the shelf life is the longest.
MAP — modified atmosphere packaging — leaves a mixture of nitrogen and carbon dioxide inside.
The slices stay separate and lift easily.
The shelf life runs a little shorter than vacuum but the convenience is high; most retail packs therefore get made with MAP.
Does the pack state the slice thickness?
Most products do not state it, but it can be calculated from the number of slices.
Where a hundred-gram pack holds five slices each weighs twenty grams.
That is around two millimetres thick.
With six slices each weighs seventeen grams and the thickness runs a millimetre and a half.
A thick slice gives satiety in a sandwich.
A thin one covers a wider area on a breakfast plate and makes for a fuller-looking presentation.
How does the unit cost get calculated?
The price per kilogram alone can mislead.
The real cost gets calculated over the quantity actually eaten.
The price per kilogram of a five-hundred-gram pack runs thirty percent below a hundred-gram one.
But where a third of the pack gets thrown away the real cost rises by five percent.
That calculation reduces to a simple rule: buy the largest pack that can be finished within four days of opening, and that gives the best point for both cost and quality.
How does an opened pack get stored?
The original packaging mostly does not reseal.
The slices move to an airtight container.
Baking paper can go between them; that stops the slices sticking.
The container sits in the coldest part of the fridge, generally the bottom shelf.
The door shelf does not get used.
In resealable packs the seal gets closed fully every time; a pack left half open dries in a day rather than three.
Can sliced ham be frozen?
Sliced ham can be frozen, though the texture changes somewhat.
The slices turn a little drier and more brittle after thawing.
Frozen product therefore goes into cooked dishes rather than onto a breakfast plate; no difference registers in an omelette, a toastie or a pasta sauce.
The slices get portioned before freezing, with a meal's worth in each bag.
Paper goes between them.
It keeps two months and thaws in a fridge; thawed at room temperature the product leaves moisture at the surface and the risk of spoilage rises.
How does the date on the pack get read?
Two different date phrases appear on delicatessen products, and they do not mean the same thing.
"Use by" says the product should not be eaten after that date.
That phrase applies to products carrying a microbiological risk; sliced meat products belong to that group.
"Best before" concerns quality; the product can stay safe past that date without being at its best.
Sliced ham generally carries a use-by date, and that date is an absolute limit.
The date of production gets checked too; a pack that has waited long on a shelf gives a shorter life once opened even where its date has not passed.
Taking the pack from the back is therefore a widespread habit; shops arrange products by date and the packs at the front carry the oldest.
