Minnesota-Based Hormel Foods Working to Create New Meatless Protein Products

SPAM: a delicious Austin, Minnesota creation.

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I truly enjoy the salty Hormel Foods product, whether with eggs and toast or in my family's homemade pizza burger recipe. It's a delectable treat. (It does help that the home of SPAM is right in our backyard, making the product a Minnesota staple.)

However, the product is beloved throughout the States. In fact, over 9 billion cans of the luncheon meat have been sold, and it makes sense. The available varieties keep growing. People, of course, can buy SPAM classic, but in addition, they can munch on these following flavors.

• SPAM Classic
• SPAM Lite
• SPAM Less Sodium
• SPAM with Real Hormel Bacon
• SPAM Oven Roasted Turkey
• SPAM Hickory Smoke (one of my personal favorites besides classic)
• SPAM Hot & Spicy
• 'SPAM Jalapeno
• SPAM Teriyaki
• SPAM with Portuguese Sausage Seasoning
• SPAM with Tocino Seasoning

And soon, vegetarians may be able to join in the enjoyment. 

Hormel is teaming up with The Better Meat Company in California to create new plant-based protein products using The Better Meat Co.'s innovative Rhiza mycoprotein ingredient. Hormel said in a press release,

The two companies will work together to develop the next generation of great-tasting, wholesome, and sustainable alternative protein products with The Better Meat Co.’s innovative Rhiza mycoprotein ingredient. Produced via a potato-based fermentation pioneered by The Better Meat Co., Rhiza is an all-natural whole food mycoprotein with a remarkable meat-like texture. Boasting more protein than eggs and more iron than beef, Rhiza offers a new generation of sustainable animal-free protein for the burgeoning alternative meat market.

A representative from Hormel tells us they have not yet determined which products or ingredients will be produced through this partnership. Though I'm not a vegetarian, I'm intrigued, and while I don't think it'll top the classic creations, I'd love to try a plant-based SPAM if they decide to go to market with that.

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Whether you like SPAM or not, I highly recommend visiting the SPAM Museum in Austin. My family and I went earlier this summer, and we had SO MUCH FUN!