The world's most expensive ham has gone on sale — complete with its own DNA certificate as proof of authenticity.

The leg of Iberico ham, which weighs in at 7 kilograms and costs £1,800, is on sale at the food hall in Selfridges in Oxford Street, central London.

That is the end of a process that begins with 50 pigs being specially selected by pig farmer and ham expert Manuel Maldonado.

They are allowed to roam over fields in Extramadura in western Spain feeding on a diet of acorns and roots that help give the ham its special flavour.

After the pigs are slaughtered the ham is salted and cured for three years before going on sale in a hand-made wooden box wrapped in an apron made by one of Spain's most exclusive tailors.

Belfast Telegraph