Scores of Americans were once on a first-name basis with bologna. A generation was raised on the sausage's popular commercials and on the meat itself, usually sandwiched simply between two pieces of white bread and a swipe of mustard.
But years of health concerns over a number of factors — from extremely high sodium and fat contents to the more immediately deadly affair of listeria contamination — caused the classic lunch meat to take a backseat to its trimmer, more boring companions in the deli meat case: sliced chicken breast or smoked turkey.
Despite promises from big bologna producers like Oscar Mayer that it's reducing sodium content in its lunch meat by 10 percent over the next two years (I am apparently ignorant of the many processes behind mass-producing bologna, because: two years?) and the fact that listeria can crop up in any deli meat you bring home and store in your cushy listeria hotel refrigerator, bologna's reputation seems to have been tarnished for good.
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