RESEARCH ON BACON

Southland Times, Issue 23141, 6 March 1937, Page 14

RESEARCH ON BACON

Cambridge Activities QUESTIONS~OF TASTE AND PRICE Research on bacon has been going on at the Low Temperature Research Station at Cambridge (England) . for several years, and is now being directed to the solution of problems presented to it by the Bacon Development Board, as well as the carrying out of more fundamental studies. In the course of a year the scientists of the station may handle 500-1000 carcasses, while in addition they measure another 2000 or so at bacon factories and markets, and collaborate in the work on the breeding, feeding, and housing of pigs at the University Farm. Public taste in bacon differs in different parts of the country, and this affects the type of pig to be bred and the methods of curing. People who do hard physical work need more fat, hence the taste for a fattier bacon in the country and industrial areas, whereas the towns, London in particular, want a milder cured and leaner bacon. The question' of price also plays a part, and the fatter cuts tend to be cheaper. People doing hard work lose a lot of salt as perspiration, and can therefore eat saltier bacon, and in fact should do so. The Low Temperature Station is studying the growth in the pig of the meat and how it differs from animal to animal and also in the different parts of one animal; it is also studying the effect of diet—the results of feeding different proportions of proteins, and the effect of rationing the pig. By growing the pig more slowly the farmer alters its shape as well as the proportion of fat to lean. Flavour of Bacon The question of flavour in bacon, which the scientist must tackle along with the other problems of producing the foodstuffs demanded by the people, gives him cold feet. Flavours are so subtle that they may be affected by one part in a million of the commodity’s constituents. Also people’s palates differ; the only general thing that most people can distinguish in the flavour of bacon is whether it is sufficiently salty or too salty for their individual taste. The man in the street—or the woman at the counter, who mostly buys with her eye, that is, by the colour of the lean and the quantity of f a t__cannot distinguish the subtle flavours that people in the industry who are handling bacon all day long will recognize. It is something on a par with tea tasting. How very small things may affect the quality of the bacon is shown by the fact that when pigs are hard driven to the bacon factory and are killed shortly after arrival, the agitation that this may have caused them affects the meat. The general practice in English bacon factories is to keep the pigs for a day before killing, and during this time they are

rested and fasted—fasting . actually causes the blank to increase in thickness. By resting the pigs before killing it has been found that 70 per cent of taint in the final hams has been reduced to 4 per cent. In Ulster it is the practice to kill the pigs on the farm when they have no journey to do and are in a state of rest This is one of the factors from which arises the good quality of Northern Ireland rolled bacon and hams. The upset of the journey from farm to factory affects the pigs adversely, and the flesh of farmkilled pigs can be distinguished from that of factory-killed by its .much lower electrical resistance. Curiously enough part of this difference is due to the shaking which the farm-killed carcasses undergo on their journey to the factory;