How Conventional Bacon & Hot Dogs Are Made

You may have seen on twitter or facebook that I’ve been making my own bacon..it is not only delicious, but it is MUCH better for you than ordinary bacon you can find at the shops. But let’s review how CONVENTIONAL bacon is made first…

How Conventional Bacon Is Made:

According to the above video, commerical (non organic) bacon is made in the following way:

• pork bellies are tumbled to soften and remove skins
• pork belly placed on a conveyor belt
• skin sliced off meat by an automated blade
• skins are processed into pork rinds (a snack food)
• meat pieces are flipped back side up so any remaning skin can be removed
• a brine solution is made with water and salt. Later liquid smoke and “other flavourings”  are added
• curing solution is added into meat
• meat is hung on a rack
• drench cabinet, coats meat and adds colour and flavourings to the surface
• meat is cooked for around 5 hours at a low temp
• meat goes into in blast chiller to chill, which firms the meat
• pork bellies are trimmed and then go into a metal detector
• meat is put into freezer
• bacon is detected for metal
• meat is sliced into bacon sized pieces
• bacon is cooked in microwave
• fat cooked off bacon and is made into gravies etc
• bacon is sorted and wrapped up

As you can see there are a lots of steps to conventional bacon AND there are unknown (to the viewer) flavourings and colours added.

How Conventional Hot Dogs Are Made:

How conventional hot dogs are made:

• trimmings are cut up
• processed chicken trimmings, food strach and  “other flavourings” are added to the meat
• water added to the meat and everything is mixed together
• corn syrup is added
• more water is added
• meat is pureed
• hot dog puree is added into cellulose tubing to make a chain of hot dogs
• hot dogs draped into moving racks
• racks of hot dogs are put through a shower of liquid smoke and baked then chilled with salt water
• hot dogs are put onto a conveyer into metal containers and stripy black casing is removed

Hot dogs are not something I have often or at all in my diet and after watching that video, which is very off-putting, you can see why! They are not good eats! There are plenty of other meats available that are much less processed and much better for us to consume than hot dogs.

What You’ll Learn In My New eBook

In the video it mentions that bacon was originally made by curing and smoking it. What they don’t tell you is that bacon can STILL be made that way and it isn’t really hard at all! As well as many recipes, how tos and health information, in my upcoming eBook you will learn how to make bacon (without chemicals) and i have to say tastes amazing!!

Organic Bacon & Other Meat Alternatives

For those that are looking to avoid all the chemicals in bacon and lunch meats, buying organic meats can be a healthier and safer alternative.

A great brand of pork (bacon, chorizo etc) that is grass fed, organic and Australian  is Pasture Perfect Pork.

Michelle

Health Food Lover is Michelle Robson-Garth. Michelle is a degree-qualified Naturopath (BHSc) and Massage Therapist. She is also a passionate writer, recipe-creator and all-round foodie from Melbourne, Australia. © Copyright: 2009-2012 Michelle Robson-Garth. Please ask permission first when using any text or images on healthfoodlover.com. Read the disclaimer here. Have a look at the recipe index for more health food lovin’ recipes. Join the Facebook page & follow Health Food Lover on twitter.

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