People are just realising how bacon is made, and the process has left them flabbergasted, with many of them vowing never to touch it again.
Archive footage of the process aired on Discovery Channel UK’s How It’s Made programme recently recirculated on YouTube. The programme, originally aired in 2018, has now seen many users admitting their “disgust” while looking at the entire cooking process.
The video shows dozens of pork bellies being tossed into a giant tumbler, which spins slowly to soften the meat, making it easier to remove the skin.
The documentary stated: “Bacon is now processed and even pre-cooked in factories.”
The softened bellies are later stretched out and placed face down on a conveyor belt, which carries them through a slicer to remove the skin. While the skin is sent for processing into crackling, the meat moves to a “flipping device” that turns it over.
Further along the production line, factory workers prepare a brine solution to cure the pork. The programme explained: “Salt is poured into a tank of water and thoroughly mixed until it dissolves. Liquid smoke and flavourings are then added before the bellies pass beneath an ‘injector head,’ where needles inject the curing solution into the meat.”
As the process continues, a “comb” is pressed into the bellies, allowing them to be hung on a rack. According to Discovery, “Next, they enter a drench cabinet for a liquid smoke shower.”
This step enhances both flavour and colour before the bellies are moved into a large oven, where they are slow-cooked for five hours at a low temperature.
Once infused with flavour, the meat is rapidly cooled in a blast freezer before being transferred to a secondary cooler for approximately two days. As the documentary explains, “Cooling firms the meat, making it easier to slice.”
Finally, the bellies are cut to size and pass through a metal detector to ensure that no fragments from the metal hangers remain in the meat. The video added: “After that, the bellies are wrapped and stored in a freezer until its time to slice them into a bacon. Here [in the slice line], workers load the meat into chutes which rotate back and forth over a blade, slicing the bellies into bacon-shaped pieces.”
The process concludes with the bacon being transferred onto another conveyor belt, which takes it through a browning microwave. Excess fat is drained off and repurposed for gravy and pet food production. The cooked bacon, then “exits the microwave oven and is carefully inspected by workers, who remove any broken or subpar rashers.” The bacon is then placed onto parchment paper by wheels before it is ready for packaging.
The video left many shocked. One user said: “I have lost so much weight since I’ve been watching how food is made. All the things I love to eat looks down right gross to me.”
A second slammed: “Oh well, bacon is off the menu for me after watching this video. I have a feeling that ham will be going the same way after seeing what is done to it!”
A third added: “Whenever I watch these videos I always think I wonder how often the nasty meat scraps get cleaned off the machines. There’s a lot of nooks and crannies for meat to get lost in.”
