Summary Commercially produced sliced, cooked, reformed ham in vacuum and carbon dioxide packs was stored at 10, 3, and ‐1.5°C. After various periods three vacuum and three carbon dioxide packs from each temperature were removed from storage and subjected to microbiological and sensory evaluation. Under mildly abusive chilled storage (10°C), the use of carbon dioxide in packs offered no advantage over vacuum in respect of retarding either microbial growth or the onset of unacceptable flavour changes. At chilled storage temperatures (3 and ‐1.5°C), carbon dioxide packaging significantly extended the lag phase before microbial proliferation commenced, but did not extend the acceptable organoleptic life of the sliced ham beyond that attained using vacuum. the use of carbon dioxide controlled atmosphere packs cannot be advocated to replace the current use of vacuum packs for sliced, cooked, reformed ham, in terms of extending product storage life.