Complaint Review: Kroger

I am an employee of Kroger and do supervise Meat Market associates in my store. I think it is better to err on the side of ignorance. I am sure that the placment of the label was coincidently placed over the "water added" declaration. Often times, getting price labels to stick to the cold (often wet) packaging of hams is difficult. The store associate may have simply applied the label where they knew it would stick and stay stuck. In the future I suggest that you bring this to store manager's attention, as he is really the best person to affect change for the bettter in your store. It is unlikely that there is a conspiracy to conceal this infomation from custoemrs. I know I was not aware of this, as I am sure that store's manager was not either. However, after reading this, I will review my own store's procedures.

ANY consumer is entitled, by law, to an accurate, and honest, identification of the product being purchased.

Caveat emptor is no longer the rule, by law.

The USDA has specific rules for identifying
products.

Some of their definitions for ham and ham
products are listed below.



United States Department of Agriculture
Food Safety and Inspection Service
Focus On: Ham

http://www.fsis.usda.gov/Fact_Sheets/ham/


HAM GLOSSARY


CAPACOLLA - Boneless pork shoulder butts
which are dry cured; not necessarily cooked.

HAM CAPACOLLA is made with ham instead of
pork shoulder butts.

COUNTRY HAM - uncooked, cured, dried,
smoked-or-unsmoked meat products made from a
single piece of meat from the hind leg of a hog or
from a single piece of meat from a pork shoulder.
Smithfield and country hams are not fully cooked
but are dry cured to be safe stored at room
temperature. They should be cooked before eating
according to manufacturer's instructions. A ham
labeled "Smithfield Ham" must be processed in
the city of Smithfield, Virginia.

HAM - the product is at least 20.5% protein in
lean portion and contains no added water.

HAM with NATURAL JUICES - the product is at
least 18.5% protein. Can weigh 8% more than
uncured weight. Example: canned hams.

HAM -- WATER ADDED - the product is at least
17.0% protein with 10% added solution; it can
weigh 8% more after curing than uncured.

HAM AND WATER PRODUCTS - Product may
contain any amount of water but label must
indicate percent of "added ingredients." For
example, "X % of weight is added ingredients".

PROSCIUTTO HAM - An Italian-style dry cured
raw ham; not smoked; often coated with pepper.
Proscuitti can be eaten raw because of the way
they are processed. PARMA HAM is prosciutto
from the Parma locale in Italy. These hams tend
to be larger than the U.S. produced product, as
Italian hogs are larger at slaughter.

I suppose that if this were a dried ham such as a prosciutto di Parma ham which is dried for 9-15 months you might have a point. But, I'm guessing that since you're from the south, you're most likely not sophisticated enough to enjoy such a gourmet treat.

So what's the issue? If you don't want a ham that contains water, buy a dried one. However, they're quite a bit more expensive, They can run up to about 20 bucks a pound because they take about an average of yesr to dry out.

Look at ANY ham label on ANY ham ANYWHERE. All cooked hams have water added to them. If they didn't, they'd be the texture of jerky! Seeing as though this is not news to anyone who is even the least bit informed, I don't how this mystery of the ham label coverup is important.

I can understand why they would want to know water added info. Why pay for water as opposed to meat? Of course the OP mentioned that "almost all" of them have the info covered. Why not look at one that isn't covered then? I would assume that if they are all the same product they would all have the same percentage of water. If they were all covered you could always peel one back and look.

Are you allergic to water? If not, who cares if "water added" is covered over?