How to limit processed meats for lunch

I have a confession to make.​

I buy myself a really expensive prosciutto that is cured only with salt. My kids, on the other hand, are fed ham and salami with ingredients that have a long list of weird chemical-sounding additives like pyrophosphates and polyphosphates hidden behind the numbers like E451 and E452. My prosciutto is merely considered processed, whereas what I feed my kids reaches the level of ultra-processed. 

Look here, people, my prosciutto is more than $100 a kilo, and I buy the tiniest amount each week. Grocery store ham or salami costs a little over $30 a kilo.

My growing kids eat like beasts, so, frankly, I can’t afford to feed them the good stuff, or what is known in our house as “mummy ham".

Tied up in all this is a dilemma that parents face: how to feed our kids healthy, convenient food without remortgaging the house.

In recent years, the public has become increasingly aware of the negative health impact of ultra-processed foods. This has been especially the case for processed meats with the World Health Organization’s (WHO) 2015 proclamation that eating 50 grams of processed meat daily - salami, hot dogs, ham, sausages, etc - increases your risk of colorectal cancer by 18 percent (technically, my fancy prosciutto gets caught up in this warning too, but its lack of added nitrates means that it is a healthier option).

“We've known this sort of thing for the last 10 years, and that advice has been fairly consistent, but there's probably been greater awareness with more research being published, continuing to show that association,” says Lily Henderson, a dietician and spokesperson for Dietitians NZ.

So what does all this mean for New Zealand school lunch boxes? Are some brands or options better than others when it comes to sandwich fillers? And is it possible to do all this within a cost-of-living crisis when parents are increasingly time-poor?

Wilhelm Zabern is a food consultant and a fourth-generation Master of Meats, a title that can take up to six years to obtain in his native Austria. He moved to New Zealand more than 30 years ago and is on a mission to improve the quality of our processed meats.

Traditionally-made ham and salami take weeks or months to make, says Zabern. Taking ham as an example, it was cured with salt and marinade, followed by smoking and cooking, he explains. That process now takes as little as 48 hours in modern food production, thanks to the marinade or brine being injected into the meat by machinery. Smaller hams might be marinated and tumbled in a machine.

“Unfortunately, a lot of hams in New Zealand, [are] what we call a high injection. So that means they pump in a lot of water and other ingredients to keep the water in there to make the product more price competitive or more profitable...”

Then there is the question of what is being injected. Some form of nitrate is one common ingredient in processed meats that the WHO singled out as probably carcinogenic. The most common form of it in processed meats is synthetic nitrates, says Zabern. These typically appear on ingredient lists as numbers 249 to 252. There is also a natural form called sodium nitrate, which is often added though vegetable extract that is commonly found in products such as nitrate-free bacon.

“Nitrates are used to give ham this pinkish colour. Then, on the other hand, it helps you to control the bacteria and extend shelf life...

“... you use it in there to speed up the curing process, and you get the sort of typically cured flavour.”

Henderson, the dietician, advises people to stay away from processed meats that contain added nitrates. Foods like canned fish or chicken are a better protein option, she says.

“Obviously, they may be still high in sodium, but they're sort of less likely to contain those ingredients [like added nitrates].”

When it comes to ham and salami brands that major supermarket chains stock, Zabern doesn’t recommend any as having a particularly natural curing process.

It’s not just nitrates to look out for, but other ingredients too, such as carrageenan, a highly processed seaweed derivative, and synthetic phosphate, says Zabern. He isn’t a fan of soy either, which is a cheap way to increase protein amounts.

“You have to look at the ingredients list to see what else goes in there.”

Zabern has a small cured meat business that is free of synthetic ingredients as well as pork and soy, but it is dearer. He is working with a South Island farmer who wants to create a meat stick - a classic lunch box snack - with cleaner ingredients.

New Zealand Food Safety works alongside Food Standards Australia New Zealand to develop the Food Standards Code, which specifies maximum levels of nitrates and nitrites. There is a balance between preserving food and food safety while “minimising health risks associated with their consumption,” Jenny Bishop, New Zealand Food Safety acting director-general, says in a statement to RNZ.

Dr Sylvia Goedeke, a dietitian, says that not all processed meats caught up in the WHO’s warning should be viewed through the same lens.

“There’s the American hotdog, that’s like the ultraprocessed foods that have multiple ingredients, very far from what you could recreate in your home...

“...technically, I could make salami at home if I had a little drying cupboard and some salt and some spices. There is a whole range, and that is a critical lens we can put on processed meats.”

Goedeke classifies ham, salami and other processed meats that contain added nitrates as “sometimes food". Some experts have the view that eating vegetables high in vitamin C, like broccoli, can neutralise the negative impacts of small quantities of these additives, she adds.

“But I feel a lot more comfortable just either not eating it if it has a preservative or an additive, or buying a more boutique brand that doesn't use those ingredients.”

One of Goedeke’s personal solutions is roasted chicken breast kept sliced in the fridge to throw on sandwiches. Parents could also freeze small portions so they stay cool in the hours before lunch. Henderson, the other dietician, recommends sending kids to school with an ice pack in their lunch box for the sake of food safety.

Roast beef also works, and even lamb koftas or meatballs, adds Goedeke.

Bishop from New Zealand Food Safety recommends hummus, leftover meat, canned tuna or salmon, peanut butter and eggs, as protein sandwich-filling alternatives.

Inspired by talking to these experts, I looked into what it would take to make my own salt-only prosciutto. And that’s about as far as I got. It’s a labour of love and patience that can take two years.

I will give the roast chicken a go instead.