The Worst Canned Ham Brand You'll Find At The Store

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Did you know that canned meat can be used in a variety of innovative ways? For instance, salmon can be added to pasta for a more flavorful dish, while ham is an excellent addition to even the best mac and cheese recipes. Although Spam is often the first item you think of when imagining canned ham, there are plenty of other brands to choose from when it comes to this convenient ingredient. Choosing the best brand can be tough, so we're here to warn you about a particular canned ham that should be avoided if you care about your taste buds.

Bristol cooked ham looks like your typical canned meat product, but its lackluster reviews are very telling in regards to its quality. On the Walmart website, Bristol cooked ham has a high percentage of 1-star reviews at the time of this writing, and consumers pulled no punches when discussing the product.

One reviewer wrote, "The taste is awful! How did they mess up something as simple as canned ham?" while another declared that the product was "not for human consumption." Bristol cooked ham didn't fare much better on Amazon, though opinions were more nuanced than on the Walmart site. That doesn't make the poor reviews any less scathing, however; one Amazon reviewer described this product as "unquestionably and undeniably the worst ham I've ever eaten in my 71 years of life."

According to the negative Amazon reviews of Bristol cooked ham, the product offers very little in terms of quality. The ham flavor was mostly absent, and what was evident tasted mostly of salt. The texture was also pretty poor, as an abundance of fat seemed to create a mushy consistency that prevented the product from being sliced (as portrayed on the front of the can).

Some people were also put off by the amount of water in the container, which one reviewer described as "a watery slurry" and a "liquid of unknown origin." A few reviewers even mentioned giving the item to their dogs instead of eating it themselves, though one person wrote, "I wouldn't feed it to my dog."

With a product this maligned, one can't help but develop a morbid curiosity about the manufacturer. A blurb on the back of Bristol cooked ham urges consumers to visit Zwan Foods for meal ideas. Zwan Foods is actually part of the Zwanenberg company, which manufactures many varieties of canned goods. Along with its canned ham, Zwanenberg also produces soups, chilis, stews, canned chicken, and more. The company originated in the Netherlands in 1929, and along with branded products, it also creates items for private labels exclusive to retailers. Lest you think that Bristol cooked ham's low quality was an anomaly, consider that we included the brand's hickory smoked ham as the last-place selection in our ranking of canned ham brands from worst to best.