10 Facts About Bologna – Chowhound

When it comes to bologna, the only things that come to mind might be the simple lunches you grew up on or perhaps the protein source you’ve always been too nervous to try out. Regardless of whether you’ve come to like it or not, though, bologna is an overall popular deli meat that’s been around for centuries and is here to stay. And if it’s going to stick around for a while longer, you should know: It doesn’t have to be the “mystery meat” people so often believe it to be.

There’s a lot more to learn about the sausage apart from its affordability and popularity in sandwiches, such as how it came to be and where in the world you can expect to find dishes that use it. The history behind this meat and the unique ways in which it’s eaten today often goes by unknown, completely drowned out by images in our mind of Boar’s Head recalls and Oscar Mayer-lined aisles. But some of the facts you’ll learn might just pique your interest in the food and make you want a bite — or not.

If the word “bologna” spurs images of mass-produced meat being churned out in factories, you’re likely thinking of the American version we so often see sitting in grocery store refrigerators now. And while that has yielded the store-bought bologna brands people both love and hate today, know that this meat actually started out being made by hand around 1660, when official rules were set regarding the production of mortadella, the original Italian sausage American bologna was based on (though the meat itself was first created even earlier).

Back then, Italian mortadella was made by grinding pork into a paste with the use of a pestle and mortar. Some artisanal food producers still use a traditional, hands-on method these days, though the use of machines in Italy to create this food item has become common. A finely ground, cured pork product consisting of cubes of fat, black pepper, pistachios, and myrtle berries, mortadella is an Italian mainstay.

Bologna, called after the Italian city of the same name, uses similar ingredients. Like mortadella, bologna is made of ground meat, though it’s usually from scraps of either pork, chicken, turkey, beef, or a mix of these. These elements are all blended together, typically along with spices like black pepper, coriander, nutmeg, and allspice, creating the uncannily smooth, uniform look that bologna is so often known for. It usually also has preservatives to help maintain its pink color, slow the growth of bacteria, and extend its shelf life.

Just like Italy has its mortadella and America has its bologna, some other countries have their own names for the meat, too. In the U.K., South Africa, New Zealand, Ireland, and Australia, for example, it’s called “polony.” Though some assume that polony comes from Poland and stems from the country’s old name, Polonia, the moniker is unrelated, and the meat is just another offshoot of mortadella.

While the term polony is more common in Western Australia, you’ll be more likely to hear “fritz” in South Australia. You might stumble upon it in a fritz and sauce sandwich, which consists of the titular sausage and some tomato sauce, like ketchup, between two pieces of buttered bread. It’s not certain exactly how the term “fritz” came to be, but a popular origin story is that it was in honor of the butcher of the same name who created it. But while the name for bologna may change depending on the region you’re in, these meats all usually share similar ingredients and are stuffed into casings.

When you think of bologna, you may think of the cold cut sandwiches that sustained you during your early school days. But its roots trace back much further than your childhood lunches. With bologna’s origins dating back centuries, it’s not all too surprising that the meat is actually deeply rooted in American history.

The ingredient was especially useful in times of rationing, making it one of the foods eaten during the Great Depression, right alongside fascinating options like the allergy-friendly wacky cake and fruitless “apple” pie. Bologna was greatly appreciated for its low price point and accessibility in a period when unemployment was high and food was hard to afford or even come by. The meat was simply eaten fried or was often used in something like a bologna casserole. For the same reasons mentioned concerning its affordability and availability, bologna was also popular as people had to continue rationing out of the Great Depression and into World War II.

Whether bologna is your cold cut of choice or it’s just something to reach over as you grab ham or turkey from the fridge instead, the meat has already established itself as having a successful multi-billion-dollar global market, regardless. More specifically, it’s estimated that the global market for bologna products was a hefty $7.7 billion in 2024. This approximate revenue is only predicted to grow in the years to come, pointing to how lucrative bologna actually is.

If that number seems suspiciously high, to add some perspective, consider that Oscar Meyer, one of the top bologna brands, alone sold 45,000 tons of the sausage in 2024. Factor in sales from other popular names like Bar-S and Boar’s Head, and it’s not so hard to see how it racked up to such a big amount. In fact, in West Virginia, the U.S. state where bologna consumption is highest, an average of 0.6 pounds of it was eaten per each person in the state’s population in 2024.

There’s no pretending that bologna is at the top of the healthy eating pyramid. But once you get past the fact that it is rather high in calories, saturated fats, and, more often than not, preservatives, you’d be surprised to learn that there are actually some benefits going on. Bologna has some vitamins and minerals, though not a very large amount. This includes an estimated 48 milligrams of phosphorus and the same amount of potassium in one slice of beef bologna. It should be emphasized, however, that this is out of a daily recommended value of 700 milligrams and 2,600 milligrams, respectively.

For a more specific example, one slice of Oscar Mayer’s beef bologna contains about 8% of the daily recommended value of vitamin C and 2% of iron. These numbers aren’t particularly high, meaning bologna definitely shouldn’t be your go-to source for any of the aforementioned nutrients, but it’s still an amount worth noting.

Despite the health benefits that do come along with eating bologna, it’s still not the type of food we’d recommend eating every day. Fear not, though — daily consumption of the food isn’t the only way for you to show just how much you love it. In fact, for one day every year, the entire country is called to (unofficially) celebrate the meat with a holiday that largely flies under the radar. That would be National Bologna Day, which falls on October 24 each year.

So when you’re officially all candy’d out for the month of Halloween, take a break from the sweetness of it all by celebrating the savory sausage instead. If you don’t know how to do that, a good start would be to try bologna in something other than a simple bologna sandwich consisting of just the cold cut and two slices of bread. There are many ways to make a bologna sandwich that your grown-up taste buds will love, whether it’s glazing the meat first or adding special toppings.

Or you can take it even further and take a look at some of the suggestions conjured up when the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council paired up with Beef Checkoff in 2018 to develop bologna-centered recipes. A number of unique dishes came about in honor of National Bologna Day that year, including Bologna Burger Sliders, Bologna-Slaki with Tzatziki, and a Crunchy Grilled Bologna and Cheese Sandwich.

Bologna isn’t just for children’s school lunches or those living through rationing eras; it’s held up against even some of the most refined taste buds — those of public figures included. The celebrity who’s perhaps most well-known for their love of bologna is the King of Rock and Roll. Elvis Presley couldn’t get enough of barbecued bologna. This smoky dish was made for him by his long-time cook, Mary Jenkins Langston, who used ingredients like lemon juice and vinegar in the sauce.

A more modern example of a celebrity who loves bologna would be Snoop Dogg. In an episode of “Martha & Snoop’s Potluck Dinner Party,” the rapper showed how to make a unique sandwich using the ingredient. He began by spooning mac and cheese into a waffle maker, followed by slices of bologna, pickles, potato chips, and cheese.

Then you have Guy Fieri, who has featured bologna dishes on his show, “Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives,” multiple times. A standout episode would be when he recreated a smoked bologna sandwich recipe that’s sold at the Georgia restaurant, Fox Bros. Bar-B-Q. After a bite of the dish, which consisted of house-made bologna, corn chips, pimento cheese, pickles, and barbecue mustard pressed between slices of bread, Fieri was blown away. These celebrities are only a few of the big-time names that have shared their love for the protein source. David Chang and Toby Keith are also bologna fans.

If commemorating the meat once a year isn’t enough for you, there are more opportunities than just October 24 to do so. You can head on over to Michigan, where for the past 35 years, the city of Yale has welcomed thousands of people who come to celebrate Yale Bologna, a well-loved, special sausage made by C. Roys, a family-owned meat-packing company based right in the Great Lakes State.

Every July, die-hard bologna fans can partake in the annual Yale Bologna Festival, which is a weekend packed with festivities. Aside from events like car shows, duck races, and family scavenger hunts, there are, of course, sausage-centric attractions, such as a bologna ring toss and even the crowning of a Bologna King and Queen.

Meat-lovers finding themselves on the East Coast can take a trip to Pennsylvania instead, where the people of Lebanon ring in the start of every new year with not a ball drop, but a bologna drop. That’s right. As soon as it hits midnight on January 1, 250 pounds of hanging Lebanon bologna (which is made completely from beef and has a highly smoky flavor with a tough texture) is lowered from the sky. If that sounds like the type of thing that’ll get your new year started on the right foot, a visit to the Keystone State might be in order.

It’s hard to believe that something like a hunk of lunch meat could be so threatening as to get banned from being brought into an entire country. That’s the case for Mexican bologna, though, amongst a sea of many other items prohibited from crossing the border. But don’t get it twisted — it’s not the extra savory, rich flavor that comes with the product being made mostly from pork that has made it illegal. It’s the fact that pork often comes along with foreign sicknesses, such as African swine fever or foot-and-mouth disease.

This outlawing has only led to smuggling. It was as recent as March 2025 that 242 pounds of the ingredient was confiscated at the border, leaving the possible perpetrator to pay a whopping fine of $10,000. In a similar situation, it was toward the end of 2024 that a woman attempted to cross 700 pounds over — again, to no avail, leading the meat to be destroyed.

It’s not uncommon for products to be recalled these days. It can be triggered by a number of reasons, whether it’s contamination from foreign objects or inaccurate labeling. But if there’s one recall that stands out, it’s the Boar’s Head incident that occurred in July 2024 and closed in November of that same year. Though only taking place over the span of about three months, within that time, more than 2.6 million pounds of listeria-contaminated meat, including bologna, was recalled.

With the weight of the Boar’s Head affair and the widespread fear it caused, little do people realize that there have been countless bologna recalls that have happened both before and after that, as it’s a common occurrence overall. For instance, it was just in February 2025 that the case involving Ralph’s Packing Company closed. Its bologna products were recalled on account of an allergen, milk, not being listed on the product’s packaging. Similarly, Gaiser’s European Style Provisions recalled almost 150,000 pounds of its bologna products because the labels failed to declare that they contained pork. And it probably won’t be too long before yet another situation such as this happens.