Everyone loves getting packages in the mail. When it's baked goods or shelf-stable canned items, the lucky recipient usually knows how to tell about its safety and what to do with it. Whether you are giving or receiving, there are some food safety tips you need to keep in mind for these special gifts. Refrigeration is necessary to keep the food safe to eat. Turkeys and hams and other meats are smoked for flavor, not preservation.
Country hams are different.
There are several ways to process meats. This effectively sterilizes them so they are shelf-stable. But some canned hams receive only a mild heat treatment and therefore are not commercially sterile. These hams must be kept refrigerated. Vacuum packaging, while inhibiting the growth of spoilage bacteria, encourages other organisms like Clostridium botulinum that thrive in low-oxygen conditions.