Joe Duggan (Reporter)
SPAIN’S sought-after jamon Iberico has been labelled a ‘massive fraud’ by a leading German newspaper.
Some 90% of jamon sold outside Spain is not authentic, according to Süeddeutsche Zeitung journalist Thomas Urban.
A 2001 regulation allowed ham from Iberico pigs that had been cross-bred with American Duroc pigs to be labelled Iberico, after the most desired pure breed.
Urvan also claimed there were not enough bellota acorns to sustain the amount of pigs sold as bellota jamon, the top-of-the-range product.
Citing sources from the University of Cordoba, the report said the use of feeds that mimic the fatty acids of the bellota have been detected in Spanish jamon.
