1937, American Jay homer invented a food called Spam, which means canned food made of H am and Sp ices. At that time, lunch was only common in the middle class and upper class, and the general working class did not have the habit of eating lunch. However, at the luncheons held by government officials and company executives, spam became very popular, and the word lunch meat gradually appeared. When Spam was introduced to Chinese mainland, canners translated Spam into lunch meat based on lunch meat, which became the origin of the word lunch meat. (copied from Baidu Encyclopedia)