Salting, curing and smoking: understand how real bacon is made

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Original product must be made from pork belly and follow the recipe established by the Ministry of Agriculture. A slice of ham or bacon contains about 23 g of processed meat Casey DeViese/Unplash Not everything that looks like bacon really is. The real product has to be made from pork belly and follow the recipe established by the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (Mapa), updated in March of this year. The regulation determines that only products made from the abdominal portion can be called “bacon” on the packaging. When the food is produced by any other part, mention must be made of which part of the pig was used: shoulder bacon, for example. In addition, it must be made from three stages: salting, curing and smoking. Bacon suppliers have until March next year to update their products and packaging. What is and what is not bacon? Understand changes in nomenclature Read more: Ground beef: see new production rules that came into effect in November Meatpacking plants have new rules for producing hamburgers; see what they are 🥓 What can be called bacon Bacon is originally made from the pork belly, explains Adriana Lara, specialist in quality management and food safety at the Brazilian Association of Bars and Restaurants (Abrasel). It is prepared from the following stages: salting: process of salting the meat; curing: use of additional ingredients to increase food preservation, such as salt, sugar or nitrites; smoking: bacon is exposed to smoke to preserve and modify its flavor. In the old regulations, any part of the pig’s body that was prepared in the same way as traditional bacon could be called bacon, with the designation “bacon style” on the packaging. In addition to the use “bacon style”, the law also allowed the use of adjacent muscles, without bone, accompanied by the words “special” or “extra” on its packaging. Since March, only the product made from pork belly is called bacon. Any other piece will be called “bacon de [parte a qual foi feita]”, for example, “ham bacon” or “loin bacon”. As a result, the term “bacon style” is no longer used. Furthermore, the word bacon may not be repeated anywhere else on the package, such as next to the name of the product. For chef and small producer Rafael Cardoso, the question of calling a product by the name of another is something very common in Brazil. “For example, here in Brazil we call chorizo ​​sausage. In Portugal, chorizo ​​is blood chorizo, and sausage is what we know around here as a thin, fresh sausage, there is no cured sausage”, he says. That is why chef Kiko Faria, from the restaurant Bão Culinária Afetiva, believes that with the new norm it will be clearer to the consumer what he is buying and which bacon he prefers, the traditional one or the ones from other parts READ ALSO ‘You’ve always eaten insects without knowing it’: company sells cricket flour that turns to snacks Seals help identify quality coffee; see tips for buying the product Mad cow: know the disease 🍽️ The traditional bacon differential The pork belly differential is that it is made up of intertwined layers, meat and fat. In the other portions, these two parts are separated. “The other parts, when we buy, you see that there are parts that have more meat. Other parts that have less meat. Bacon, no, it has a standardization”, says Adriana. That is why bacon from the belly is more valued. Bacon producers will have to make it clear when it is not made from pork belly Luisa Rivas/g1 However, because it is more fat, there was a demand from the public for “skinny bacon”, with more meat. Therefore, the same process was applied to other parts of the animal’s body, explains Ana Lúcia da Silva Corrêa Lemos, director of the Institute’s Meat Technology Center de Tecnologia de Alimentos (Ital), linked to the government of the state of São Paulo.

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