After reading this study, you will never look at a pork chop the same way again.

 The pink colour of ham is not natural, it is due to a food additive known as E250: nitrite salt. It is a mixture of salt and sodium nitrite. Before cooking, the meat is pricked to inject nitrite salt and preserve its beautiful pink colour which gives it a fresh appearance. Without nitrite, the meat would have a rather gray color after cooking like roast pork. Without this pink colour, manufacturers claim that no one would buy ham.