Company

 

Ham is the best part of the pig. It is prepared in various ways. The simplest way to preserve ham is to dry it. The meat is first salted with sea salt and then dried.

If you mention dried ham, some foreign products spring to mind. However, salting dried hams and letting them mature underground is a typically Flemish way of preserving ham.

GREGA, a Flemish ham producer based in Buggenhout, mounts considerable marketing campaigns to make its traditional products more widely known and to boost sales. The name GREGA may not be familiar to everyone, yet the company has built up a sound reputation in this country through the years.
 
GREGA makes dried hams like, for instance, SUPERANO (15 months matured), NEC PLUS ULTRA (18 months matured) and PATA GREGA (24 months matured). Grega is the only ham maker that lets the hams mature for more than 15 months!!!
 
GASTON and GRETA (hence the name GREGA) Van den Berghe - Vermeir took over the business from Mr. Van den Berghe’s father and uncle in the 1950’s. In the butcher’s shop customers often asked for quality ham. That is why they decided to make their own prime quality ham.
 
‘It all started with five hams we dried at the potato loft’, says Gaston Van den Berghe.

Gaston made several study trips to Spain and Italy, where different salting techniques are applied. This resulted in a unique image: dried and cooked hams prepared in a traditional way, using meat from young animals that are fed in a natural manner.

The production of ham took a flying start. ‘Our know-how, the use of wholesome products and a strict hygienic production environment have always been the standard and still hallmark the quality of our product’, says Gaston Van den Berghe.

Since 2007 his son Luc is the manager of the company.

Today, the Buggenhout-based business in Maalderijstraat is a large company of some 4000m2 with a production capacity of 100,000 hams. The retail business for direct sale to customers was preserved.

Traditional yet ultramodern company.

Traditional is not incompatible with ultramodern production methods. GREGA is absolutely spick and span. We guarantee the strictest standards of hygiene since our staff wears protective clothing and gloves, and we use knee-operated electronic washing installations, knife disinfectors, thermographs and stainless steel tools and walls.
Grega hams are subjected to quality control by BRC and FAVV (Federal Food Agency) . Furthermore, Grega hams are also tested by various laboratories (Lavetan).

Dried ham contains unsaturated fatty acids.

The fat of dried ham contains unsaturated fatty acids whereas fresh meat contains more saturated fatty acids. Meat products do not always have a reputation of being healthy, but dried ham is good for you, says Gaston Van den Berghe. SUPERANO ham is a natural product and does not contain any flavourings or nitrate. The only ingredients are pork and sea salt. Dried ham contains little fat, and besides we’re talking about 50% poly-unsaturated (and therefore cholesterol-lowering) fatty acids.

Grega Meat Products
Maalderijstraat 40
B-9255 Buggenhout
Belgium

Tel. 00 32 52 33 49 42
Fax 00 32 52 33 06 90
E-mail: info@grega.be
 
Staff: 23
Surface area of the company: 4000 m²