Food
Bacon and ham
Introduction
Our test of middle bacon and packaged ham found some products were pumped full of water.
We looked at the added water content of 20 bacon and ham products. Some products had way too much water. And the fat-content labelling was higher than claimed on three of the five bacon products we spot-tested.
Added water
Water is added to bacon and ham to make them heavier, so manufacturers can put less meat in each packet and charge a lower price per kg. It’s also added as part of modern curing and brining techniques.
The trouble with added water is that some of it evaporates when you cook – a particular problem with bacon. The excess water stops the bacon going crisp and (perhaps worst of all) makes it shrink.
Not such a problem with ham … but it’s easy to feel ripped off when you see how much water these products contain instead of the meat you think you’re paying for.
The industry blames consumers. They claim people demand products at different price points and this is the only way to provide it.
The good news is you don’t have to put up with it. Our test revealed some brands are much less waterlogged than others.
What we found
Wet and dry
Looking for bacon that’ll crisp up? Colonial Dry Cure, Home Brand and Hellers Sensational all had less than 5 percent added water. Four other brands are also worth trying – their added water was between 5 and 10 percent (see the Test results).
Pams Smoked had 16 percent added water and was the wettest bacon in our test.
Some ham was even more waterlogged. The best (Verkerks Classic Leg Ham and Beehive Shaved Champagne Ham) had 10 percent or less added water. But all brands of “sandwich ham” had more than 20 percent added water. Hobson’s Choice was the wettest of the wet – it was 50 percent added water!
The quantity of added water in bacon isn’t always linked to price. Home Brand bacon was one of the cheapest in our test but only had 3 percent added water. But it’s a different story for ham – the cheaper products generally had more added water.
Tip: The water in packaged ham creates a moist bacteria-loving environment. Store ham in the fridge and don’t keep it for more than a few days. If it’s slimy throw it out.
Why so much water?
Much of it’s because of short cuts in the brining and curing process. Bacon is salted or cured pork meat. Traditionally, the pork either had a mix of dry salt and sodium nitrite rubbed into it or it was soaked in brine. This could take several weeks. After, the bacon was smoked over a wood-fire. Old-fashioned ham was done in a similar way.
Today it’s more common to fast-track the process, saving the manufacturer time and money. Brine is still used but it’s injected into the meat through needles. The bacon or ham is ready in a matter of days. And rather than being smoked over a fire, some bacons have “smoked” flavour added to the brine.
Dry-cured bacon is a combination of modern and traditional methods. The dry-cured approach involves rubbing salt, and sometimes sugar or honey, into the meat. There’s no injection of brine and no added water.
Inaccurate labels
We checked how accurate the nutrition information panels were for protein content. Natural variation is inevitable in products like bacon and ham, so we allowed protein content to vary by up to 20 percent from what was on the label.
Even then we found four products (Home Brand Middle Rashers, Beehive Smoked Middle Bacon, Pams Smoked Middle Bacon and Goulds Sandwich Ham) whose protein was beyond our 20 percent tolerance. Goulds said it was reviewing its nutrition information and this product would be a priority.
We also spot-tested the fat content of five bacon products. Three of the five products had at least 20 percent more fat than what was claimed on the label.
Some manufacturers of bacon and ham products clearly need to look at their quality-control procedures and make sure their labels are more accurate. We’ll be following up this issue with the New Zealand Food Safety Authority.
A problem is that the Food Standards Code requires nutrition information to be based on “average values”. This allows the levels of fat, sodium, sugar, carbs and energy in a batch of products to fluctuate around an average level – so any one batch might be 20 percent over the average and another batch 20 percent under (and each individual product in the batch could be wildly above or below).
We’d like maximum and minimum values introduced as well. These would tell manufacturers the upper and lower limits for each individual product and consumers would have more certainty about what they were buying. In the past we’ve found products with double the amount of sodium compared with what was claimed on the label – this would no longer happen.
Products compared
For a detailed discussion of these test results see What we found.
Guide to the table
Our test was conducted by an independent laboratory in New Zealand.
- Price per kilo based on the price we paid - larger packs may be more economical.
- Added water calculated by establishing the overall water content of each product and then deducting the analysed quantity of fat-free pork.
- Fat and sodium and pork content taken from the product label.
What's in your bacon and ham?
Percentage of pork
It’s a good idea to check a product’s ingredients list for its percentage of pork. Gould’s Sandwich Ham says it’s only 48 percent pork. The bacons we looked at ranged from 75 to 95 percent pork.
Not all products list meat-content information, as bacon and ham are exempt from this Food Standards Code requirement. We’d like to see the exemption removed. Then consumers will know what they’re paying for.
Additives
Processed meats are strong on additives. All the products in our test had sodium nitrite added. It’s a preservative and so helps prevent the growth of bacteria; it also gives bacon and ham their characteristic pink colour and flavour.
The Food Standards Code controls the level allowed in products. There are some health concerns about nitrites (“see “Health concerns”, below).
Stabilisers, phosphates, food conditioners, mineral salts and emulsifiers are used to retain the water in bacon and ham. Starches and vegetable gums are thickening agents and also help hold in the water.
Antioxidants help prevent the fat in bacon and ham from going rancid.
Sodium troublespot
Processed meats are the second biggest contributor to our sodium intake. All processed meats are high in sodium but some aren’t as bad as others.
Goulds and Home Brand bacon had the lowest sodium levels in our label survey. Dry-cured varieties (such as Colonial Dry Cure Middle Bacon) are higher in sodium.
There’s less variation in packaged ham.
100% New Zealand
If you look at the fine print on labels, you’ll see some products are “Made in New Zealand from local and imported ingredients”. This means the bacon or ham has been processed here but is likely to contain at least some imported pork.
According to the industry group New Zealand Pork we imported 800,000kg of pork a week in 2007 – much of it went into bacon and ham.
If you want to support Kiwi producers, look for the “100% New Zealand” label or buy products that say they use 100 percent New Zealand pork. These products are guaranteed to be raised on Kiwi farms and produced according to our code of welfare for pigs (see “The welfare of pigs”).
Health concerns
Processed meat and cancer
In 2007 the World Research Cancer Fund published a report concluding we should avoid processed meats (such as ham, bacon, salami and sausages) that have nitrites added.
There’s concern that nitrites may help cause cancer, particularly stomach cancer. The risks are related to the amounts you eat – so aim to cut back your consumption. Eating less of these products also means less saturated fat and sodium in your diet.
Swine flu
There’s no evidence you can catch swine flu by eating pork products (or any animal flu by eating animal products). Swine influenza has never been detected or reported in pigs in New Zealand.
The welfare of pigs
Recent media sparked by SAFE (a national animal rights organisation) has highlighted the conditions to which pigs are subjected. The two main areas of concern are dry sow stalls and the use of farrowing crates.
- A dry sow stall is an individual pen in which a sow may be housed during pregnancy. She can only stand or lie down, but not turn around.
- Farrowing crates are used after birth to accommodate the sow and piglets.
Pigs, like all animals, are protected by the Animal Welfare Act 1999. In 2005 a pig welfare code was set up under the Act. It recommends best practice as well as minimum standards for pig farming.
Dry sow stalls are specifically mentioned in the code. The stalls must have enough space and sows that show severe lameness or behavioural problems must be removed from a stall. From 2015, confinement in a dry sow stall must be for no more than four weeks after mating.
The code also covers farrowing crates. These must be big enough for the sow to lie full length without leg restriction; and there must be an escape area for the piglets. Sows must not be confined for more than six weeks in any reproductive cycle.
Concerned groups say this still isn’t good enough. The Code is being reviewed this year and urgent attention is needed to address these concerns.
It’s surprisingly hard to work out if you’re buying pork products made from pigs that weren’t restrained in dry sow stalls or farrowing crates. Only one product in our test – Freedom Farms Middle Bacon – states that it’s free-farmed using no crates, cages or pens. We’d like all products to be labelled so that consumers can see at a glance which pork products are more “pig-friendly”.
Our view
- Excessive brine in packaged bacon can be seen and felt. If the bacon feels spongy, it’s too wet. Dry-cured varieties are a good bet – but they may be saltier.
- Processed meats are high in fat and sodium so cut back your intake. To make bacon less unhealthy (and more crispy) try grilling rather than frying.
- Some producers need better quality control – we found too many products with unacceptably inaccurate labelling of protein and fat content.
- Maximum and minimum values should also be used for products’ nutrition information panels. The Food Standards Code’s current system of “average values” doesn’t give manufacturers enough guidance on the acceptable variation of levels of fat, sodium and sugar in their products. Pork products should also state the percentage of pork they contain.
- We’d like all pork products labelled to show whether or not they’re free farmed, so consumers can see at a glance which products are more “pig-friendly”.
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Report by Belinda Allan