Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Iberico/Mangalitsa Scandal in Spain

There's a televised expose of the fraud in the Iberico market in Spain. Here is the info from the TV station about the expose (translation).

The mass media has finally covered the substitution of Mangalitsa for Iberico. E.g. curing a leg of Mangalitsa and calling it a jamon iberico. I've known about this a long time.

This fraud is possible because Mangalitsa is so similar (if anything a bit tastier) than Iberico that experts can't look at a carcass and say that a Mangalitsa carcass isn't Iberico. As European chefs have told me: Mangalitsa and Iberico perform equally in the kitchen.

Of course, it is cheaper to produce Mangalitsa pigs in Hungary than it is to produce Iberico in Spain, where labor and real estate cost so much more.

In the end, I hope this leads to more consumer acceptance of products like Monte Nevado's mangalitsa products.

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