Hey Minnesota! Can You Safely Eat Spotted Cooked Ham?

I'm not trying to add worry if you've purchased your Christmas ham but one Minnesotan recently posted some pictures to a social media page, devoted to cottage food producers, of cooked and spotted ham. The question was asked, whether or not it was safe to eat, and what they should do with it. The answers were very educational, and I wanted to share them with you, in case this happens to you, which it could as it seems to be pretty common.

Image Credit: Vance Fitch via Farm Direct Minnesota on Facebook

Vance Fitch, on the Facebook Page Farm Direct Minnesota, shared the above photo and had some questions for the online community.

So it's a week out from Thanksgiving now. On that day, we slice up the ham to put in the slow cooker at "keep warm." It's a $65 ham! The pic is what we see. It's called petechial hemorrhaging. Apparently, "mishandling of the pig prior to slaughter or by accidental bruising during shipping or unloading."

I know it's safe to eat if brought up to proper temp but would you serve this? That's the question! Quite the dilemma on Thanksgiving morning! Nothing is open! What to do! Well, Holiday is open for breakfast burritos.

I did contact the supplier on Thanksgiving morning, I won't disclose the supplier. Anyway, the conversation got a bit heated due to the occasion of the day. I get it but it's Thanksgiving for me as well!

It's a week out, the supplier said they would contact the butcher but to date, AFAIK, no further conversation. Nothing, nada, nichevo!

There should be some recourse, what I'm not sure! The ham and bacon are edible but there is that lingering ???!

What would you do?

(EDIT) Boy did I open a can of worms!

Here are some of the helpful responses that I found below the picture post.

Image Credit: Paul Shea/TSM

Erin a butcher says this can and does happen when the pigs kick or flop wildly.

Image Credit: Paul Shea/TSM

So we learned that the spotted ham IS safe to eat, even though it doesn't look the best, and we learned what causes it. In terms of what you should do, if you are making a practice ham you might be able to get your money back, if your Christmas ham turns out like this and you went to a grocery store you can probably get your money back, but if you went to a butcher shop they might have a policy regarding something like this happening.