Fire Branding

After 12 months, a quality testing takes place: an inspector pierces each ham at five critical points with a porous horse bone needle, sniffing it after each puncture and inhaling the aroma. This helps determine whether the ham is of sufficiently high quality to be sold as Parma Ham.

Hams that pass all of the quality control tests are fire branded with the official mark of the Consortium, the five-point ducal crown that identifies them as genuine Parma Ham. Only the independent IPQ can brand the finished ham with the stamp of Parma's five-pointed.

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