A Regulation Writes Equipment into the Rules of Jinhua Ham

This year's Start of Winter has an extra layer of significance: the country's first local regulation on the ham industry, the Jinhua Ham Industry Development and Promotion Regulation, officially came into force on the same day. One clause in the regulation is particularly noteworthy for the food machinery industry: ham made with traditional techniques shall be salted with raw materials put into production between Start of Winter and Start of Spring of the following year; for production with raw materials put in at other times, modern techniques shall be adopted, with temperature and humidity controlled throughout the process. In other words, if a Jinhua ham is to be produced regardless of seasons, the premise is that the workshop must have facilities that feature "temperature and humidity control and full-process controllability". Equipment has thus become a compliance threshold for this millennia-old craft.

To understand this provision, we first need to look at how a ham is made. Many people's impression of Jinhua ham still rests on open-air drying grounds: rows of bamboo-leaf-shaped hams on wooden racks, exposed to the sun and blown by river winds. This was indeed the case in ancient methods, but the workshops of today's large-scale enterprises are long gone from that scene. Following the working procedures, raw hams are trimmed and shaped before salting — traditionally, salt is applied in batches based on the master's touch, while now equipment completes the process according to parameters; after being fully salted, the hams are washed, dried, shaped, placed on shelves and fermented. Fermentation is the most critical step. Traditionally, it depended on weather and ventilation, while the mainstream practice now is constant-temperature and constant-humidity intelligent fermentation warehouses, which simulate the natural ecology to let hams mature slowly. The Super Factory of Jinzi Ham, put into operation in June this year, is China's first "5G + AI" intelligent ham factory: the technician team disassembled and quantified the 48 core intangible cultural heritage procedures into process parameters and input them into the large AI model, which are precisely executed by equipment.

There is another often-overlooked step after fermentation: portioning and packaging. New products such as ready-to-eat sliced ham, ham mooncakes and even ham ice cream all rely on slicing and portioning equipment, vacuum or modified atmosphere packaging machines, and metal detectors to be launched. Article 24 of the regulation also requires the implementation of "one code for one ham", relying on the provincial traceability system to realize full-chain traceability. This means inkjet coding and code assignment equipment, as well as automatic collection of temperature, humidity and process data, have become standard factory configurations for every compliant ham. The regulation also makes it clear that false labeling of raw materials, sources and production processes is prohibited — data must be authentic, and the equipment that records data must be reliable first.

However, the regulation does not intend to force all hams into constant-temperature workshops. It leaves room for both routes: those put into production from Start of Winter to Start of Spring and following ancient methods are managed according to traditional techniques; those produced in other periods must have temperature and humidity controlled throughout the process. Meanwhile, grades are distinguished by three levels of gold, red and green labels, with the highest grade reserved for hams made from high-quality Liangtouwu raw materials and fermented over a long period with complete ancient methods. In other words, the category that stands the test of time is instead more clearly protected by the system.

Chen Shuntong, a national-level representative inheritor of intangible cultural heritage, said when the 5G + AI intelligent ham factory was put into operation: "Craftsmanship is the root, and equipment is the hand. The root cannot be lost, and the hand must also grow." The tactile experience of the 48 procedures is disassembled into parameters to make experience replicable, rather than invalidating it. What equipment makes up for is the output and stability of human hands; what craftsmanship retains is the proper flavor of that ham.

With craftsmanship and equipment each in their proper place, the scale of this business is also expanding. In 2025, the output of Jinhua ham reached 4.65 million pieces, the output value of the whole industrial chain was 2.79 billion yuan, and there were 78 manufacturing enterprises. According to local industrial expectations, the output is expected to exceed 5 million pieces and the output value surpass 2.9 billion yuan in 2026. The designed production capacity of Jinzi's super factory alone is 1.5 million pieces per year, and it is also equipped with production lines for sausages and cured meat. Looking ahead, Jinhua is also building new fine portioning and high-end ready-to-eat ham projects at the Liangtouwu breeding end. Such products have higher requirements for slicing precision, sterile environments and packaging freshness than whole hams.

Temperature and humidity controlled fermentation systems, full-link traceability and code assignment, fine portioning and ready-to-eat packaging are precisely the new "infrastructure" delineated by the regulation. For the food machinery industry, this is a rare example: a local legislation does not directly talk about equipment, yet it makes equipment an indispensable hand for industrial upgrading.