Americans have a love affair with pork sandwiches, according to pork checkoff-funded research. About 36% of all sandwiches consumed in 2000 were made with pork. That list includes ham, hot dog, bologna, hero/sub, salami, sausage or bacon/BLT.
Research by NPD Group, a Chicago research firm well known in the food industry, says that nine out of 10 Americans eat sandwiches regularly. The average person eats three sandwiches a week, one of which is pork-based. Ham tops the list of the 15 types of sandwiches that are eaten most often.
This research has been conducted for more than 10 years. Ham has consistently topped the list each year in all regions of the country.
"Consumer preferences for ham sandwiches has remained constant over time, partly due to checkoff-funded promotion of pork," says Steve Schmeichel, Hurley, SD, pork producer and chairman of the National Pork Producers Council’s Demand Enhancement Committee. "Also, part of the consistency is because pork is a versatile ingredient for sandwiches and because consumers change eating habits slowly."
The NPD National Eating Trends Service collects data from 2,000 households over a two-week period.