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Go Local With Your Christmas Ham

Australia’s most awarded butcher, Adam Stratton, is urging people to “go local” this Christmas when it comes to selecting their Christmas hams.

Adam Stratton is a master butcher and runs the successful Tender Value Meats chain in Sydney. 

“Around 22 million kilograms of ham is sold in Australia at Christmas time, but unfortunately, not all of that is sourced from Australia,” Mr Stratton said

“It is important that customers know that the ham they serve for Christmas lunch might have spent three months on a boat being shipped in from overseas,” he said.

“Who knows what refrigeration has been used to get the produce here.

“Pork products are flooding the local market from places such as Scandinavia, Asia and North America.

“In my mind, when it comes to Christmas hams, there is no substitute for local produce.

“Australian produce is a clear winner for appearance, taste and value.

“Customers need to look for the hot pink Australian PorkMark logo – this is a guarantee that the ham is made with 100 per cent Australian home-grown pork.

“In fact, research shows that around 90 per cent of Australians prefer to buy Australian produce because they believe Australian pork is fresher, of a higher quality and tastes better,” Adam said.

Latest figures show that nearly $10 million worth ($9.3m) of imported pork arrives in Australia every week destined to be made into ham and bacon.

Mr Stratton said there that were a number of things to consider when selecting your Christmas ham:

  • Go pink – look for the hot pink Australian PorkMark logo to ensure your product is local

  • Only buy from a reputable butcher

  • Look to buy female free-range hams – the male hams have a stronger, dominant, less pleasant taste.

Adam’s Christmas hams are smoked for up to eight hours, delivering the perfect flavour combination of savoury smoke and salt.

“We’ve cracked the code to the perfect Christmas ham,” he said. “People start ordering them from the middle of the year.

“We have customers from all around Australia ordering our smoked hams for Christmas.”

 

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