Ham, sliced

Listed nutrients, per 100 g

For each nutrient, the value this page uses is marked “used”. A row marked “second database” is another database’s figure for a matching food, kept so you can see how far databases disagree (they can differ in the samples analysed, lab methods and rounding). Its own cells are worked out from it, but none of the page’s words or scores are.

Change the amount to rescale the first column. Nutrients a database doesn't list are missing, not zero.

Hazard rows as the dataset rates them

• Alpha-gal syndrome · Worth knowing · Flagged for people with alpha-gal syndrome: they are told to stop eating mammalian meat, and ham is pork. This is a person-specific warning, not a dose. · US CDC, About alpha-gal syndrome · A
• Aluminum · Nothing to watch: under the limit · No cap: EFSA's tolerable weekly intake (TWI) for aluminium is 1 mg/kg body weight/week, 70,000 µg a week for 70 kg. Eaten alone, about 38,954 g a week would reach it; a 55 g serving carries 98.8 µg. Cured pork carries about 1.8 mg/kg in the Canadian Total Diet Study; water-added cures and phosphate additives are candidates, but the cause is not established. Background intake is not shown. · Health Canada Total Diet Study, trace elements · A
• Arsenic, all forms · Context · Shown as context, not rated: total arsenic has no reference value, and the inorganic share is what would be rated; none was measured for ham. FDA found a mean of 0.97 ppb in baked ham (7 detects in 27 samples). · Health Canada Total Diet Study, trace elements · A
• Cadmium · Nothing to watch: under the limit · A daily serving adds 0.97% to an average adult's cadmium intake (EFSA 2012 adult median, 1.77 µg/kg body weight/week; Canadian adults in 2007: 1.2-1.75), far from doubling it, so no cap. · Health Canada Total Diet Study, trace elements · A
• Dioxins and dioxin-like PCBs · Worth knowing · Flagged: EFSA's 2026 tolerable weekly intake for dioxins and dioxin-like PCBs is 0.6 pg WHO 2022 toxic equivalents/kg body weight/week, 42 pg a week for 70 kg. On CFIA's 2014–2019 raw pork samples, eaten alone, about 10,742 g a week would reach it at the lower bound (0.00391 pg/g, so an upper bound on grams) and 591 g a week at the upper bound (0.07105 pg/g). 85.4% of the congener results were non-detect, so the bound decides the answer. These are raw cuts as sampled, not cured, sliced ham, and no sourced conversion exists. · CFIA dioxins survey (2014–2019) · B
• Histamine · Nothing to watch: under the limit · No cap: EFSA's 2011 level for histamine is 50 mg per person per meal, with no body-weight scaling. At the upper-bound mean of 4.4 mg/kg, about 11,364 g in one meal would reach it, eaten alone; at the maximum sample (212 mg/kg) it is 236 g. A 55 g serving carries 0.24 mg, 0.5% of the limit at the mean. The figures are for a category (cooked ham, mortadella-type sausages), not ham alone. · EFSA 2011 · B
• Lead · Nothing to watch: doesn’t double average intake · No cap: no safe level is set for lead; EFSA's 2010 reference point is a benchmark dose lower limit (BMDL01) of 0.5 µg/kg body weight/day. Judged by what a serving adds to the average adult's intake (EFSA 2012: 35 µg a day at 70 kg). A 55 g serving carries 0.36 µg, 1.0% of that, well under a doubling. · Health Canada Total Diet Study, trace elements · A
• Listeria · Worth knowing · Flagged for pregnancy and other vulnerable groups: Health Canada's pregnancy page lists non-dried deli meats among the foods to avoid unless heated until steaming hot. This is a handling rule, not a dose. In CFIA's 2018–2021 retail survey, L. monocytogenes was found in 2 of 1,285 deli meat samples (0.16%), both in the ham and pastrami category; the count cannot be split by ham alone. · CFIA 2018 · A
• N-nitrosamines · Not rated yet · Not rated: EFSA's 2023 opinion uses a benchmark dose lower limit (BMDL10) of 10 µg/kg body weight/day for the nitrosamine NDEA and judges risk by margin of exposure. It names meat and meat products as the main contributor, with the margin at the 95th percentile highly likely under 10,000 for all age groups, a health concern across all foods, not ham alone. No N-nitrosamine concentration for ham was read, and cooked, sliced ham is not fried, so the formation seen in fried bacon does not apply to ham eaten cold. · EFSA 2023 · B
• Nickel · Nothing to watch: under the limit · No cap: EFSA's 2020 tolerable daily intake (TDI) for nickel is 13 µg/kg body weight/day, 910 µg a day for 70 kg. On the FDA figure for baked ham (mean 1.5 ppb, 27 samples, 1 detect), eaten alone about 606,667 g a day would reach it; that is an upper bound on grams, since the mean rests on a single result. Shown beside it: Health Canada's cured pork (ham and bacon) mean of 1,375 µg/kg would reach the limit at about 662 g a day. The two datasets differ about 900-fold; the cause is not established. · US FDA Total Diet Study (2018–2020) · B
• Nickel · Nothing to watch: under the limit · No cap: shown beside the FDA figure. EFSA's 2020 tolerable daily intake for nickel is 13 µg/kg body weight/day, 910 µg a day for 70 kg. On Health Canada's cured pork composites (ham and bacon) the mean is 1.375 µg/g, so about 662 g a day, eaten alone, would reach it; a 55 g serving carries 75.7 µg. The composites run from 0 to 6,965 µg/kg, and the FDA finds about 900 times less; the cause is not established. · Health Canada Total Diet Study, trace elements · A
• Nitrite · Nothing to watch: under the limit · No cap: EFSA's 2017 acceptable daily intake (ADI) for nitrite is 0.07 mg nitrite ion/kg body weight/day, 4.9 mg a day for 70 kg. Eaten alone, about 684 g a day would reach it; a 55 g serving carries 0.39 mg, 8% of the ADI. Background intake from all sources is shown, not subtracted (EFSA 2017, adults: mean 0.03 mg/kg body weight/day, 2.1 mg a day; high exposure 0.05, 3.5 mg a day, EU). One serving adds 19% of the mean and 11% of the high figure. · Nationalporkboard 2009 · B
• Added phosphates · Not rated yet · Not rated: EFSA's 2019 group acceptable daily intake (ADI) for phosphorus is 40 mg P/kg body weight/day, but the listing's total phosphorus (153 mg/100 g for ham, 252 for water-added deli ham) cannot be split into natural and added phosphorus. A 55 g serving carries 84 mg of total phosphorus, about 3% of 2,800 mg, which is only an upper bound on the added share. No measured added-phosphate level for Canadian ham was found. · EFSA 2019 · C
• Processed meat (IARC classification) · Context · Context only (a classification and a relative risk, never scored). IARC lists ham among the examples of processed meat. · IARC 2015 · A
• Purines and gout · Not rated yet · Not rated for people with gout or hyperuricemia: the only reference is a Japanese dietary recommendation of 400 mg purines a day, seen through Kaneko 2014 rather than an agency document, so no reference is established. Kaneko 2014 measures boneless ham at 74.2 mg purines per 100 g (HPLC, four purine bases) and pressed ham at 64.4; boneless ham stands in for deli ham. A 55 g serving carries about 41 mg. For scale only, 400 mg would be reached at about 539 g. · Kaneko 2014 · C
• Sodium · Context · Context (Health Canada DRI: sodium chronic disease risk reduction intake (CDRR) 2,300 mg/day for adults 19-50, AI 1,500, no upper intake level (UL)). One 55 g serving = 448 mg = 19.5% of the CDRR; not scored as a hazard. · US food database (USDA SR Legacy) · C
• Tyramine · Worth knowing · Flagged for people taking MAO inhibitors: EFSA (2011) gives 6 mg of tyramine per meal as a no-effect level. For information, 6 mg ÷ 16.2 mg/kg is 370 g at the mean, 90 g at the 95th percentile (67) and 21 g at the maximum (292); a 55 g serving carries 0.89 mg at the mean. These are category figures (cooked ham among other meat products). In the dry-cured ham category, a 55 g serving at the 95th percentile (149 mg/kg) is 8.2 mg, above the 6 mg level. · EFSA 2011 · B

Oxalate, phytate and gut-tolerance measurements

• histamine: mean 3.9-4.4 mg/kg (lower bound-upper bound), n 75, 80% non-detect, median <1, P95 4.8, max 212; category 'other meat products (including cooked ham…)' mg/kg · as sold, fresh weight · cooked meat products, EU retail/monitoring · grade B · EFSA 2011
• tyramine: mean 16.1-16.2 mg/kg, n 75, median 4.9, P95 67, max 292; dry-cured ham category: mean 44 mg/kg (n 92), P95 149 mg/kg · as sold, fresh weight · cooked meat products, EU · grade B · EFSA 2011

Sources

• US CDC, About alpha-gal syndrome
  cdc-alpha-gal-about · page · US government work (17 USC 105), public domain
• CFIA, Food Safety Action Plan Targeted Survey: Dioxins and Dioxin-like Compounds in Selected Foods 2014-2019 (data and 2-page overview PDF; report page inspection.canada.ca)
  cfia-dioxins-2014-2019 · dataset · Open Government Licence – Canada 2.0
• CFIA, Bacterial Pathogens and Indicators in Ready-to-Eat Meat – April 1, 2018 to March 31, 2021 (Food microbiology – Targeted surveys – Final report)
  cfia-rte-meat-2018-21 · page · Government of Canada terms (Crown copyright)
• Health Canada, Canadian Nutrient File 2026 (14th edition)
  cnf-2026 · dataset · Open Government Licence – Canada 2.0
• EFSA BIOHAZ Panel (2011) Scientific Opinion on risk based control of biogenic amine formation in fermented foods. EFSA Journal 9(10):2393 · doi:10.2903/j.efsa.2011.2393
  efsa-2011-histamine · secondary source · EFSA Journal: CC BY (not re-checked)
• EFSA FAF Panel, Re-evaluation of phosphoric acid-phosphates - di-, tri- and polyphosphates (E 338-341, E 343, E 450-452) as food additives and the safety of proposed extension of use, EFSA J 2019;17(6):5674 (PMC7009158) · doi:10.2903/j.efsa.2019.5674 · PMID 32626329 · doi.org
  efsa-2019-phosphates · full text read · CC BY (EFSA)
• EFSA CONTAM Panel (2023). Risk assessment of N-nitrosamines in food. EFSA Journal 21(3):e07884. PMC10043641 · doi:10.2903/j.efsa.2023.7884 · PMID 36999063 · doi.org
  efsa-2023-nitrosamines · full text read · CC BY (EFSA Journal)
• US FDA, Total Diet Study FY2018–FY2020 Elements Report Supplement
  fda-tds-fy2018-2020 · dataset · US government work (17 USC 105), public domain
• USDA FoodData Central, SR Legacy, 2018-04
  fdc-sr-legacy-2018-04 · dataset · CC0 1.0 (public domain)
• Health Canada, Canadian Total Diet Study – Trace Elements (2005–2018 composites)
  hc-tds-trace-elements · dataset · Open Government Licence – Canada 2.0
• IARC, Q&A on the carcinogenicity of the consumption of red meat and processed meat (2015)
  iarc-vol114-qa-2015 · full text read · IARC 2015, all rights reserved
• Kaneko K, et al. (2014) Total purine and purine base content of common foodstuffs for facilitating nutritional therapy for gout and hyperuricemia. Biol Pharm Bull 37(5):709-721 · doi:10.1248/bpb.b13-00967 · PMID 24553148
  kaneko-2014-purines · secondary source · J-STAGE open access
• National Pork Board (Pork Checkoff), 'A National Survey of the Nitrite/Nitrate Concentrations in Cured Meat Products and Non-meat Foods Available at Retail' (Keeton, Texas A&M; completed 2009-08-04; project 08-124). Funder summary page of the survey behind Nuñez de González 2012.
  nationalporkboard-keeton-2009-nitrite · page · licence not recorded

Body map 2026-10-25.1: each nutrient’s job comes from an agency fact sheet, linked beside it under Good for.

The plain words: “a lot” means one serving (100 g when the food has no serving size) gives at least 20% of the daily amount (the reference intake), “some” at least 10%, “a little” at least 2% (the cut-offs are ours, one set for every page: 20% and 10% are borrowed from the US labelling terms “high” and “good source” and applied to Health Canada’s daily amount, whereas Health Canada’s own shopper rule says 15%; provisional: they may change in a later method version). The daily amount is Health Canada’s Dietary Reference Intake for adults 19–30; where men and women need different amounts we use the higher one (protein: 56 g for men, 46 g for women). The percentage printed under each nutrient is the printed amount as a share of that daily amount, rounded to the nearest whole number, and the word is read from that percentage, so the amount, the percentage and the word always agree. Calcium with a measured absorption is scaled by how well it gets in compared with milk.

The scale: “Nothing to watch” means a serving a day stays under the limit at ordinary amounts; “Go easy” means a serving a day can push past the limit for adults who already take in the most, or fewer than 2 servings reach it; “Limit it” means once a week or less. The dataset’s own rating is under “How we got this”. Provisional: the scale may change in a later method version.

Measured absorption under Good for: grade-A studies in adults that tested this preparation of this food, as a share of the listed amount (the share digested, for protein), quoted once each source has passed our evidence check; animal studies and other variants stay in the table above. Provisional: this screen may change in a later method version.