Monte Nevado Fatty Pig Award

The Monte Nevado Group is a family-owned company based in Carbonero el Mayor (Segovia, Spain) and dedicated for four generations to the production of Serrano, Mangalica and Iberian ham. The company sells over half a million hams in more than 30 countries, with national facilities in Segovia, La Rioja and Salamanca and international branches in France, USA and Canada. Specialized in long-term high-quality fat ham, Monte Nevado was responsible for the recovery of the Mangalica breed in Hungary, which was in critical danger of extinction in 1990. The company currently owns three farms in Hungary that guarantee the maintenance of such breed.

Monte Nevado is a company strongly devoted to research and development initiatives. For this reason, it has carried out numerous R&D projects in recent years and has been involved in several publications, where the Atlas Monte Nevado de Anatomía del Jamón Serrano might be one of the most significant contributions. The main objective of this company is to obtain a high-quality ham by a thorough inspection from the arrival of the raw material to the production of the final product.

The objective of the award

The aim of this initiative is to select and award the best original study in applied research on the improvement of pork meat quality in relation to its suitability to produce high-quality cured ham. 

In this call, we will particularly consider research focused on genetic, animal production or production process improvements devoted to favor the deposition of intramuscular fat, improving the lipid profile of the meat, preventing the appearance of PSD and DFD meats, favoring the reduction of proteolytic potential of meat (that favors suitable textures), and any other contribution that is susceptible to improve the sensorial evaluation of the final product.