Anonymous Monk,
Assuming there are no imbedded commas: 
my %pal;
while ( <FILE> ) {
    chomp;
    my ($key, $val) = split /,/ , $_, 2;
    $pal{$key} = $val;
    if ( $val eq $my_item ) {
        # some code
    }
}

[download]
Cheers - L~R

Update Added code to address testing values secondary question

In reply to Re: Hash Problem by Limbic~Region
in thread Hash Problem by Anonymous Monk

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