Smithfield to Be Sold to Chinese Meat Processor

[MineralMan]

29. Butcher's meat is one thing. Products like ham, bacon, sausage,

and other processed meats are another thing altogether. There are a number of producers of those products, including Smithfield, who produce private label packaged meat products for supermarket chains. Those packages may bear any name the chain wants, but I don't know of a single supermarket chain that has its own meat products packaging operation.

So, the ham you buy with the store's name on it could have come from Smithfield or a number of other major meat-packing operations. Finding out which one can be difficult, but there will be a "manufactured" entry on the package label. It may only bear the name of a city, but you can run it down if you wish.

It's always a good idea to know who actually made your products. Here in Minnesota, one high-end grocery store chain had to recall a bunch of their premium grade private label hams in 2010 due to listeria contamination. It was very embarrassing for them. See this link:

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2010/04/04/kowalskis-ham-recall