The Old-School Deli Meat That Used To Be Way More Popular

While you're browsing the deli in your local grocery store, you'll see plenty of different types of meat and cheese just waiting to find a home in your sandwich. But just like everything else, foods follow trends, falling in and out of style through the decades. In particular, olive loaf used to be quite popular, but you won't find it in as many fridges these days.

Olive loaf is a type of processed deli lunch meat studded with whole olives and pimento peppers. It's made out of different proteins, usually pork, beef, and chicken, along with a variety of spices and seasonings. It was perhaps at its most popular in the 1970s and '80s, since it was a cheap, easy-to-prepare food that lasted long, tasted good enough, and had great visual appeal. Typically, the olives are coated in milk powder to keep them in place while the meat is being sliced, leading to its characteristic look when sliced.

Essentially, olive loaf is bologna with olives and pimentos added to the mix. Just like bologna, it shares roots with mortadella, another type of deli meat that's made solely of ground pork. Since mortadella is also sometimes pitted with peppers and nuts like pistachios, and its surface is broken up with chunks of fat, olive loaf is arguably closer to mortadella than bologna, especially when you consider the visuals.

Olive loaf's decline appears to have begun in the 1990s. Rising concerns about health and the nutritional content of food led to decreased consumption of processed foods, including many deli meats, and olive loaf got caught in the wave. Sodium and fat were especially big concerns for health-conscious consumers, and deli meats were big sources of both. By 1995, reports indicate that sales of deli meats were declining by as much as 2.6% annually.

However, bologna and other meats like pepperoni are still lunch mainstays today, while olive loaf seems to have stayed in obscurity. Why is that? It's possible that, after eating olive loaf so much in their childhoods, people just got sick of it and now avoid its distinctive flavor in adulthood. It's also possible that it doesn't appeal to modern kids who may not enjoy extra ingredients stuck in their food. With their distinctive briny flavor, perhaps olives have become a bit divisive, especially for younger palates.

Despite its fall from popularity, olive loaf isn't one of the lost '70s foods you can't find in stores. It's still being made and sold today, so you can likely still find it somewhere near you, though you may need to do a bit of extra searching or ask a deli department worker. If you want to see what people were so excited about in the '70s, pick some up from your local deli and try it in your next sandwich.