American Association of Meat Processors Announces Cured Meat Champions
August 5, 2026 | 2 min to read
The 2026 winners of the American Cured Meat Championships have been announced.
The annual American Association of Meat Processors (AAMP) Convention, held July 9-11 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, also hosted the annual American Cured Meat Championships (ACMC).
The ACMC is the largest nationwide cured meats contest of its kind in the United States, and this year’s competition featured 644 products submitted by 51 plants from across the country.
There were 30 categories, and the Grand Champions of each class were honored.
This year’s big winner was Woods Smoked Meats of Bowling Green, MO, who won the Cured Meat Excellence Award for best overall performance in the ACMC as well as the Clarence Knebel Best in Show Award for the Country Ham submitted in the Cured Specialty Meats category.
There were four winners in each category: Reserve Champion, Champion, Reserve Grand Champion, and Grand Champion. Each class is judged by internal and external characteristics by meat industry professionals, including processors, suppliers and meat science professors. In many cases, the winners were separated by a mere handful of points.
There were two additional awards presented at the 2026 ACMC awards ceremony. The Cured Meat Excellence Award goes to the company that had the best overall performance at the ACMC. The Clarence Knebel Memorial Best in Show Award goes to the product that was judged to be the best in the entire competition. This year, both awards went to Woods Smoked Meats of Bowling Green, MO. The Best in Show award went to the Country Ham that the company submitted for the Cured Specialty Meat Products class. Steve Bolton, owner of Woods Smoked Meats, was on hand to accept his company’s awards.
AAMP congratulates all of this year’s winners and extends a sincere thank you to this year’s judges, coordinators and volunteers. It takes many people to support the registration, check-in and judging of more than 600 products, and the AAMP members and university students who give their time makes it all possible.
Next year’s competition will take place during the 2027 AAMP Convention, July 22-24 in Lexington, KY.
The full list of winners is available on AAMP’s website.