In the UK this summer, thousands of holiday-makers will be devouring a cooked breakfast with the integral ingredient being bacon.  The likelihood is, however, it won't be British.  The Sauce puts British bacon to the test.

Staying with my parents in deepest rural Devon, I was speechless – a rarity - when I discovered that the bacon being used in the Saturday fry up was (gasp) Danish.  Living in the countryside, had my parents not grown up surrounded by farmland, pigs included, for most of their lives? Had they not heard of the ubiquitous Jamie Oliver endorsing the Save our Bacon campaign?  The British Pig Executive? British Bacon Education Week? Or even William Hague's failed attempt in 1999 to ban Danish bacon?  Even McDonalds uses British bacon.

My mother, a Head Teacher and keen environmentalist, is relentlessly proud of her local sourcing of fruit and vegetables.  All roast meat, chops, mince and stewing steak is predominantly bought from the local butcher or farm shop at the weekend.  If purchased at the supermarket, then it usually comes from somewhere in Britain via the meat counter.  But here was the petulantly pink Danish bacon lying flaccid in the frying pan. 

After labouring the point that their eldest child works for an organisation whose sole aim is to promote British food, I listened to their justification.  My mother had done the shopping. My mother had had a busy week and had missed the butchers.  However, she also emphasised that she very rarely buys bacon from the supermarket.  She and my father both knew about the British Quality seal and the Red Tractor logo.  Nonetheless, she was in a rush and she went for the cheapest option.

Ah yes, the cheapest option.  Sadly, but perhaps understandably, she is not alone.  I took it upon myself to visit most of the residents of their village.  An array of young families, single-parent families, semi-retired couples a single or two and a couple of octogenarians.  Only one household had British bacon in their fridge.  Even when I visited my sister and her husband in a nearby village, they too had Danish bacon lying smugly in their Zanussi.  Of course, not all the packets said they were Danish.  But none of the packets had the British Quality seal and on closer inspection none of the pork claimed to be British.

In homes, hotels, bed and breakfasts and cafes all over the country people are ultimately going to be swayed by price: especially in a recession and especially when the Danish bacon, despite its production methods, doesn't taste that bad.

I explained to my family and a friend that the reason British bacon is more expensive is because our pigs are better looked after.  The pig welfare legislation, passed in 1999, means that British pigs have more space and a better quality of life. In the Netherlands, Denmark, Germany and Italy, where more than half of bacon sold in the UK comes from, farmers can keep sows in smaller pens and for longer periods.  A recent special investigation by The Guardian newspaper revealed that an “an alarming 70% of the 970,000 tonnes of pig meat we import each year does not meet British welfare standards..”

Interestingly, once I had told them this, all of them vowed to check the packaging and only buy British bacon in the future.  There is no guarantee this will happen but it made me realise that large national campaigns are not enough.  Anyone who understands how crucial it is to buy British bacon needs to ensure that all their friends and families have the same comprehension. Similarly, if you are in a rush, it is worth knowing that some supermarkets, for example The Co-op and Waitrose sell own-brand bacon that comes only from the UK. 

Bacon is one of those products that will predominantly be bought in a dash or when the customer is feeling slightly jaded.  If only supermarkets had to have Quality British Seal shelves or a sign explaining why British bacon costs more.  Well, why don't you do your bit for Britain today and get some friends or the cook of where you are staying to buy British.

For information about how to tell if your bacon is British [click here].
For examples of traditionally cured bacon [click here].
To learn more about British bacon [click here].
To find local bacon producers near you [click here].
For information on the Pigs are Worth it campaign [click here]

Danish vs British…. This month The Sauce cooks a full English Breakfast, twice. Once with British bacon and once with its Danish counterpart…

The Sauce

The English Breakfast

• What ingredients did you use?
  Per person, I used: 2 sausages, 3 rashers of bacon, 1 flat mushroom, 1 ripe tomato, 1 thick slice or 2 thin slices of black pudding, 1 large egg and 1 slice of bread.


• How readily available were the ingredients?
  The breakfast was for Saturday morning and I had left it to the Friday evening, after work to buy the ingredients.  My only option was the supermarket – Tesco.
  
  Although Tesco claims to use all-British flour in the in-store bakery, I went for the cheaper option at £0.66, which was Hovis Soft White Medium, made from 100% British wheat.
  
  It was easy to find free-range eggs.  I bought the Tesco free-range mixed weight box of 15 for £2.50.
  
  I bought a four pack of Tesco own-brand British large flat mushrooms for £1.00.
  
  I bought four loose British tomatoes for £0.52
  
  For the Danish breakfast I used Tesco 8 Pork Sausages (£0.97 for 8).  These contain 56% of EU pork and are filled into beef collagen casings.  For the British breakfast I used Tesco Finest 10 Traditional Pork Sausages (£4.00 for 10).  These contain 85% British pork and are filled into natural pork casings.
  
  For the Danish breakfast I used Tesco 6 Black Pudding Slices (£0.92) which contained ambiguously originated pork blood.  For the British breakfast I used Halls Black Pudding (£0.79).
  
  For the Danish breakfast I used Tesco Unsmoked Back Bacon at £1.98 a packet.  For the British breakfast I used Case and Sons Wiltshire Unsmoked Back Bacon at  £2.58 a packet.


• What was the sum total cost of this meal
  Per person, the Danish breakfast cost £2.25 and the English breakfast cost £3.07


• How many people did it actually feed?
  It fed 4 people, with each person eating half an English breakfast and half a Danish one.


• What did you do with the leftovers?
  There were none.


• What did your guests think of the meal?
  I decided not to tell them which of the sausages, bacon and black pudding were British or Danish.  With regard to the sausages, it was clear that the British ones had more meat in them.  The black pudding was far harder and only 1 guest allocated the right serving to the correct country.  My guests took no time to deduce the bacon's origins either, simply because the British bacon was far more succulent and retained its shape more.  The only other complaint was that the bread should have been thinly sliced not medium.

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