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Pork is the culinary name for the meat of the pig ( Sus domesticus). It is the most commonly consumed meat worldwide, with evidence of pig animal husbandry dating back to 8000–9000 BCE.
Pork is eaten both freshly cooked and preserved; curing extends the shelf life of pork products. Ham, gammon, bacon, and sausage are examples of preserved pork. Charcuterie is the branch of cooking devoted to prepared meat products, many from pork.
Pork is the most popular meat in the Western world, particularly in Central Europe. It is also very popular in East Asia and Southeast Asia (Mainland Southeast Asia, Philippines, Singapore, and East Timor). The meat is highly prized in , especially in China (including Hong Kong) and Northeast India, for its fat content and texture.
Some religions and cultures prohibit pork consumption, notably Islam and Kashrut.
Charcuterie is the branch of cooking devoted to prepared meat products such as bacon, ham, sausage, terrines, , pâtés and confit, primarily from pig.Ruhlman, 18.; The Culinary Institute of America, 3. Originally intended as a way to preserve meats before the advent of refrigeration, these preparations are prepared today for the flavors that are derived from the preservation processes.Ruhlman, 19. In 15th-century France, local regulated tradesmen in the food production industry in each city. The guilds that produced charcuterie were those of the charcutiers. The members of this guild produced a traditional range of cooked or salted and dried meats, which varied, sometimes distinctively, from region to region. The only "raw" meat the charcutiers were allowed to sell was unrendered lard. The charcutier prepared numerous items, including pâtés, rillettes, , bacon, trotters, and head cheese.
Before the mass production and re-engineering of pigs in the 20th century, pork in Europe and North America was traditionally an autumn dish—pigs and other livestock coming to the slaughter in the autumn after growing in the spring and fattening during the summer. Due to the seasonal nature of the meat in Western culinary history, (harvested in late summer and autumn) have been a staple pairing to fresh pork. The year-round availability of meat and fruits has not diminished the popularity of this combination on Western plates.Thompson, Michael D., “‘Everything but the Squeal’: Pork as Culture in Eastern North Carolina,” North Carolina Historical Review, 82 (Oct. 2005), 464–98. Heavily illustrated.
According to the USDA's Foreign Agricultural Service, nearly 100 million metric tons of pork were consumed worldwide in 2006 (preliminary data). Increasing urbanization and disposable income has led to an uprising in pork consumption in China, where 2006 consumption was 20% higher than in 2002, and a further 5% increase projected in 2007. "Livestock and Poultry: World Markets and Trade." Circular Series DL&P 2-06, Foreign Agricultural Service, United States Department of Agriculture, October 2006. Retrieved on 15 August 2007. In 2015 recorded total 109.905 million metric tons of pork were consumed worldwide. By 2017, half the world's pork was consumed in China.
| 54,070 | ||||||||
| Austria Belgium Bulgaria Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Estonia Finland France Germany Greece Hungary Ireland Italy Latvia Lithuania Luxembourg Malta Netherlands Poland Portugal Romania Slovakia Slovenia Spain Sweden United Kingdom Croatia | 20,691|| 20,952 || 20,821 || 20,375 || 20,268 || 20,390 || 20,913 | 20,062 | |||||||
| 9,452 | ||||||||
| 3,160 | ||||||||
| 2,811 | ||||||||
| 2,590 | ||||||||
| 2,506 | ||||||||
| 2,270 | ||||||||
| 1,868 | ||||||||
| 1,659 | ||||||||
| 897 | ||||||||
| 6,656 | ||||||||
| *In metric tons ('000s) Source: USDA reports, 2009–2013 figures, 2014–2016 figures | ||||||||
In China, pork is preferred over beef for economic and aesthetic reasons; the pig is easy to feed and is not used for labour. The colours of the meat and the fat of pork are regarded as more appetizing, while the taste and smell are described as sweeter and cleaner. It is also considered easier to digest. In rural tradition, pork is shared to celebrate important occasions and to form bonding. In China, pork is so important that the nation maintains a "strategic pork reserve". Red braised pork ( hong shao rou), a delicacy from Hunan Province, was one of Mao Zedong's favorite dishes. Other popular Chinese pork dishes are sweet and sour pork, bakkwa, and charsiu.
In the Philippines, due to 300 years of Spanish colonization and influence, lechon, which is an entire roasted suckling pig, is a national delicacy.
| +Global pork production, 2020 !Rank !Countries !Metric tonnes !% of world | |||
| 1 | China | 36,340,000 | 37.58% |
| 2 | European Union | 24,150,000 | 24.97% |
| 3 | United States | 12,843,000 | 13.28% |
| 4 | Brazil | 4,125,000 | 4.27% |
| 5 | Russia | 3,611,000 | 3.73% |
| 6 | Philippines | 2,467,000 | 2.55% |
| 7 | Canada | 2,130,000 | 2.20% |
| 8 | Mexico | 1,451,000 | 1.50% |
| 9 | South Korea | 1,403,000 | 1.45% |
| 10 | Japan | 1,298,000 | 1.34% |
Ham and bacon are made from fresh pork by curing with salt (pickling) or smoking. Shoulders and legs are most commonly cured in this manner for Picnic shoulder and ham, whereas streaky and round bacon come from the side (round from the loin and streaky from the belly).Ruhlman, Michael and Polcyn, Brian. Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking and Curing. New York: W.W Norton & Company, 2008.
Ham and bacon are popular foods in the West, and their consumption has increased with industrialisation. Non-western cuisines also use preserved meat products. For example, salted preserved pork or red roasted pork is used in Chinese and Asian cuisine.
A side of unsliced bacon is a "flitch" or "slab bacon", while an individual slice of bacon is a "rasher" (Australia, Ireland, New Zealand and the United Kingdom) or simply a "slice" or "strip" (North America). Slices of bacon are also known as "collops". Traditionally, the skin is left on the cut and is known as "bacon rind". Rindless bacon, however, is quite common. In both Ireland and the United Kingdom, bacon comes in a wide variety of cuts and flavours, and is predominantly known as "streaky bacon", or "streaky rashers". Bacon made from the meat on the back of the pig is referred to as "back bacon" and is part of traditional commonly eaten in Great Britain and Ireland. In the United States, back bacon may also be referred to as "Canadian-style Bacon" or "Canadian Bacon".Cattleman's Beef Board & National Cattlemen's Beef Association. Uniform Retail Meat Identity Standards . Retrieved 11 July 2007.
The canned meat Spam is made of chopped pork shoulder meat and ham.
In 1987, the U.S. National Pork Board began an advertising campaign to position pork as "the other white meat"—due to a public perception of chicken and turkey (white meat) as healthier than red meat. The campaign was highly successful and resulted in 87% of consumers identifying pork with the slogan. The board retired the slogan on 4 March 2011.
Pork is very high in thiamin (vitamin B1). Pork with its fat trimmed is leaner than the meat of most domesticated animals, but is high in cholesterol and saturated fat.
These are the creatures that you may eat from among all the animals that are upon the land. Everything that possesses a split hoof, which is fully cloven, and that brings up its cud—this you may eat. But this is what you shall not eat from what brings up its cud or possesses split hooves—the camel, because it brings up its cud but does not possess split hooves...and the pig, because it has split hooves that are completely cloven, but it does not bring up its cud—it is impure to you and from its flesh you may not eat.
- —Leviticus 11:2–4, 7–8
And the pig, because it possesses split hooves and does not bring up its cud—from its flesh you may not eat.
- —Deuteronomy 14:8
As indicated by the Torah verses, pork is non-kosher because Jews may not consume an animal that possesses one trait but not the other of cloven hooves and regurgitating cud. Hogs, which are not , do not chew cud as cattle and sheep do. Practicing Jews suffice on the biblical explanation of the swine as 'unclean'. Maimonides shared this view in classifying the swine as an unclean creature in both its habit and diet. See also Guy Darshan, (2022) “Pork Consumption as an Identity Marker in Ancient Israel: The Textual Evidence,” Journal for the Study of Judaism 53,4-5.
The prohibition of swine-eating in Ancient Israelite cuisine, according to Douglas, was because the pig was raised by non-Israelites, ate carrion and did not fit into the classification of ungulates. Harris disagrees and points out that Egyptians and Sumerians also restricted pigs and that goats also ate corpses, yet were not declared unclean in Ancient Israel. Harris offers an explanation based on environmental and economic factors instead.Society for Old Testament Study (1991). 9780521423922, Cambridge University Press. . ISBN 9780521423922
In Israel, pig-raising has been limited by law to certain areas and institutions. Some pig-related laws are openly circumvented. Swine production has increased from an estimated annual slaughter of 50,000 swine in 1960 to 180,000 in 2010. Pig meat consumption per capita was 2.7 kg in 2009. Although pork marketing is prohibited in some religious localities, pork products are available elsewhere at non-kosher butchers and by the Mizra and Tiv Ta'am non-kosher supermarket chain, which caters to Russian immigrants. A modern Hebrew euphemism for pork is "white meat".
The Qur'anic basis for the Islamic prohibition of pork can be found in surah , , and .
When pork was not included on the menu of the Liverpool Council's first Christian Orthodox Interfaith lunch some members of the Macedonian Orthodox community objected, citing the historical significance of the dish to the community during the Ottoman era and raising complaints that the council was discriminating against Eastern Orthodox. A spokeswoman for the council explained that the council had not prepared a pork menu option because Muslims, Jews and Hindus do not consume pork and it had seemed inconsistent with the purpose of bringing together persons of different faiths, though after the complaints raised by the Orthodox community a pork alternative was added.
Undercooked or untreated pork may harbour pathogens, or can be recontaminated after cooking if left exposed for a long period of time. In one instance, the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) detected Listeria monocytogenes in of Polidori Sausage fully cooked pork sausage crumbles, although no one was made ill from consumption of the product. The FSIS has previously stated that listeria and other microorganisms must be "...destroyed by proper handling and thorough cooking to an internal temperature of ," and that other microorganisms, such as Escherichia coli, Salmonella, and Staphylococcus aureus can be found in inadequately cooked pork, poultry, and other meats. The FSIS, a part of the USDA, currently recommends cooking ground meat to and whole cuts to followed by a 3-minute rest.
Pigs can be carriers of various helminths, such as , , . One of the more common is Taenia solium, a type of tapeworm, which may transplant to the intestines of humans after consuming undercooked meat. Raw and undercooked pork can also cause other diseases, such as toxoplasmosis.
Although not a common cause of illness, Yersinia enterocolitica—which causes gastroenteritis—is present in various foods, but is most frequently caused by eating uncooked or undercooked pork and can grow in refrigerated conditions. The bacteria can be killed by heat. Nearly all outbreaks in the US have been traced to pork.
Pork may be the reservoir responsible for sporadic, locally acquired cases of acute hepatitis E (HEV) reported in regions with relatively mild climates. It has been found to transmit between swine and humans.
Trichinosis, also called trichinellosis, or trichiniasis, is a parasitic disease caused by eating raw or undercooked pork infected with the of a species of roundworm Trichinella spiralis, commonly called the trichina worm. Infection was once very common, but is now rare in the First World. From 2002 to 2007, an annual average of 11 cases per year were reported in the United States; the majority were from consuming wild game or the source was unknown. The number of cases has decreased because of legislation prohibiting the feeding of raw meat garbage to hogs, increased commercial and home freezing of pork, and the public awareness of the danger of eating raw or undercooked pork or wild game products.
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