How innovations in smoking and processing keep bacon on the menu
Bacon continues to be a global breakfast favorite, valued for its taste, versatility, and affordability. Yet, shifting consumer preferences toward healthier, more natural foods - combined with rising energy costs and labor shortages - are challenging producers to rethink traditional processing methods. This article explores how innovations in smoking and processing are helping manufacturers maintain bacon’s appeal while improving efficiency, consistency, and sustainability.
Bacon is a salt-cured pork made from various cuts, often smoked, and it is praised by consumers for its superior taste. Understandably, it’s popular in many cultures around the world, particularly in North America and Europe.
In a recent report, Industry Insights: Is Breakfast Under Threat?[i] bacon’s popularity is attributed to its versatility, affordability and wide availability. Being an inexpensive meat, it is an attractive choice for fast-food chains looking to keep costs down while still offering a satisfying breakfast menu.
Pork products, including bacon, are the most popular ingredients on global restaurant breakfast menus, and are included in just over 30% of dishes, according to research from GlobalData.
Paul Verbruggen, Product Owner Heat Treatment Technology at GEA Food Solutions, believes bacon’s popularity remains strong due to its attractive flavor and taste.
While its popularity remains stable, current trends towards more natural foods show that consumers are now more conscious of the impact nutrition has on health. This is influencing their meat product selections. Additionally, time-strapped consumers want quick and easy meals that offer good value when choosing foods for the family, but they also want them to be delicious.
By leveraging cutting-edge technology and equipment, producers can follow the current healthier trends by producing low-salt, traditionally smoked bacon and ham. By increasing process efficiencies and cutting waste, bacon and ham processors can ensure they continue to provide consumers with delectable and succulent bacon at a price they can afford.
Traditional versus novel smoking
Research shows that smoked meats may create health concerns owing to tar and other carcinogens produced during the smoking process. While manufacturers look for healthier alternatives, some processors still want to maintain traditional smoking.
Uniquely, GEA can provide a novel in-line solution based on industrial spiral ovens to suit both naturally smoked products or atomized smoked products. This solution does not require use of traditional smoke houses.
Both solutions can be implemented in GEA CookStar spiral ovens, using an in-line combination, where the first spiral oven serves as a drying chamber and the second smokes and creates the final product.
“The customer can run conventional, smoked products (natural smoke) and use the atomizer solution as an alternative. In traditional smoke houses manufacturers are typically smoking four hours. We have shown that we can do it within two hours, so it’s actually cutting the time in half.”
Paul Verbruggen
Product Owner - Heat Treatment Technology at GEA
This makes a very efficient process possible in a smaller footprint, with less room required, and no tools, racks or cooling required in those areas. From a factory design perspective, it’s more sustainable.
A strong smoking solution, it is optimized for bacon and covers HotSmoke application smoking up to 80°C. As an integrated inline smoking solution, combined with the GEA CookStar double-spiral oven, it offers an efficient alternative to batch-oven smoke processes.
The savings for producers can be significant.
“How does atomized smoke work? For example, beech wood or other wood types can be provided as a condensate. There is even an opportunity to develop more specific and tailored flavors, because natural flavors can be added to the condensate. This is difficult to accomplish with natural smoke. You can keep the authentic flavor, but by using Kerry Red Arrow (condensate) the product produced is healthier.”
This means that bacon and other meats smoked in this way can carry the ‘clean label’.
According to Verbruggen, consumers in Europe and the US who have previously preferred traditional smoking are becoming more aware of clean-label products as healthier alternatives that still deliver when it comes to aroma and taste.
GEA's inline smoked bacon processing solution
Flexibility and consistency
Verbruggen says he is seeing a lot of flexibility in the industry at the moment, with producers offering a greater range of products or even combining them. Some manufacturers are using by-products to create high-end ranges, he adds, due to improvements in process yield and reduced waste.
He believes that consistency is key.
“In traditional batch smoking, because of the way the racks are loaded, the products in the middle are less likely to achieve the same intensity of color,” he says.
“However, the GEA inline process is much more consistent because of our air flow. All the products are treated exactly the same, and that’s why we have a much more consistent color. And because of that, we have less giveaway.”
Inline solutions also have an impact on energy efficiency. Smoking cabinet solutions currently use racks or rails. This is less efficient and time-consuming. After several hours of smoking, the belly racks are removed and the process is repeated. This method also requires extra labor in the form of handling of the racks and cleaning.
An inline solution utilizing GEA’s CookStar is not only quicker and cleaner, but it also means that producers have the flexibility to cook both smoked and non-smoked products in one oven.
“GEA’s technology and expertise for making perfect bacon is not limited to using the GEA CookStar spiral oven”, adds Willem Poos, Product Owner Marination. “The quality of a sliced and packed bacon product strongly relates to the start of the process: the marination and curing step.” GEA’s injection line not only provides a smooth process step, it improves brine uptake and delivers the industry benchmark in distribution and retention with the dense 2mm needle injection pattern resulting in yield control and improved color development. To make perfect bacon, everything has to be in balance; that is where the best-in-class GEA technology know-how comes in. It’s not what you do, it’s how you do it that matters. Ultimate control and understanding of the whole process, from pickle preparation to consumer package. GEA does it right.
Smoking bacon bellies in the GEA CookStar
”The quality of a sliced and packed bacon product strongly relates to the start of the process: the marination and curing step.”
Willem Poos
Product Group Owner - Marination at GEA
Greater capacity and efficiency
Feedback from customers has been very positive says Verbruggen, with processors commenting on the consistency of products and low maintenance and labor costs.
“They are telling us that not only do our inline solutions do what they want, but they are also getting more capacity out of the line with greater efficiency,” he says.
Looking ahead, Verbruggen says new solutions will offer customers access to real-time data from inline processes, allowing them to control production more accurately. And inline will replace batch processes in the pork industry, which currently face labor challenges.
The inline smoking solution using the GEA CookStar spiral oven complements GEA’s innovative technology for marination lines, as well as solutions in slicing and packaging.
“This will increase efficiency and margins for producers, allowing them to develop new products. Investment is considered a significant step. However, this is seen as the way forward,” he adds.
Bacon
Deliver consistent quality and flavor with equipment built for every step. From marination and curing to slicing and packaging.
Cooked ham
Achieve top-quality slices with equipment that ensures precision, natural taste, and seamless integration.
Related products
Download our free whitepaper and learn how to optimize yield and maximize quality in ham and bacon processing.
Whitepaper
