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Danish Bacon was a
brand A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's good or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create an ...
under which
Danish Danish may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark People * A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark * Culture of Denmark * Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish a ...
bacon was sold in the
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
. The product had "Danish" stamped on the rind between wavy lines. The Danish farmers producing Danish Bacon and their co-operatives were represented by Danske Slagterier, whose UK subsidiary was the Danish Bacon and Meat Council. Danske Slagterier was absorbed into a Danish agricultural umbrella organisation in 2009. The majority of Danish bacon is produced through the farmer-owned co-operative Danish Crown. The co-operative system has low costs because of the scale (25 million pigs per year) and the elimination of the need for markets. Most of the production is for export. Danish pig exports started to the UK in the mid-19th century when exporting to Germany became difficult and have grown ever since despite attempts by UK domestic producers and other importers to compete. They have not been able to keep pace with Danish modernisation of the curing process and increasing centralisation. Denmark now concentrates on pig production and has moved
bacon Bacon is a type of salt-cured pork made from various cuts, typically the belly or less fatty parts of the back. It is eaten as a side dish (particularly in breakfasts), used as a central ingredient (e.g., the bacon, lettuce, and tomato sand ...
curing and packing to other countries. Such bacon is sold as Danish, somewhat controversially, even within Denmark itself. Pigs for the UK market were reared separately to a UK specification, mostly because of UK concerns over pig welfare in Denmark. This separation ceased following the EU-wide outphasing of
sow stall A gestation crate, also known as a sow stall, is a metal enclosure in which a farmed sow used for breeding may be kept during pregnancy.Wilson G. Pond, Fuller W. Bazer, Bernard E. Rollin (eds.), ''Animal Welfare in Animal Agriculture'', CRC Press ...
s in 2013.


Organisation and output

Most Danish pig farms are members of one of two large farmer-owned
co-operative A cooperative (also known as co-operative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically-control ...
s which account for 95% of pigs slaughtered. The largest of these is Danish Crown, which alone accounts for 90%.Coff et al., page 83. All export is through these two co-operatives. A number of smaller slaughterhouses operate outside this system for domestic supply, but none have a licence to export. Costs are high in Denmark and the industry there is highly regulated, but the country has nevertheless developed a competitive advantage through large-scale integrated organisation by its co-operatives. There are no markets or auctions in this system. Prices are set on a weekly basis by a committee of Danske Slagterier, thus making a large saving on transportation costs as there is less need to move animals around.Coff et al., page 85. About 25 million pigs are slaughtered per year, which is 5 pigs for every Dane.Coff et al., p.80. Pig production is still increasing. Pig production grew from 17.7 million to 21.4 million in the decade up to 2002 and reached 24.7 million in 2004. Future growth is planned at 2% per year. 75% of this production goes to export.


History

In the 19th century, Denmark's main food export was grain to the UK, but it was outcompeted by the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
and
Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
and began to switch to pigs and butter from dairy herds.Coff et al., page 84. English
Large White pig The Large White is a British breed of domestic pig. It derives from the old Yorkshire breed from the county of Yorkshire, in northern England. History First recognised in 1868, the breed is the progenitor of the American Yorkshire in North ...
s were exported to Denmark in the early nineteenth century. From 1840 to 1870 grain was almost half of Denmark's exports, but by 1900 this had fallen to under 3 per cent. Denmark exported bacon to the United Kingdom from at least 1847, when flitches of bacon were specially prepared for the English market, but had no large-scale production until 1864, when the
Second Schleswig War The Second Schleswig War ( da, Krigen i 1864; german: Deutsch-Dänischer Krieg) also sometimes known as the Dano-Prussian War or Prusso-Danish War was the second military conflict over the Schleswig-Holstein Question of the nineteenth century. T ...
made export of live pigs to
Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...
, where up to then they had been slaughtered and cured, impossible and Denmark was forced to do this locally. However, export to the UK only became significant after
Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
, to whom Denmark had been exporting since the Middle Ages, erected trade barriers to (1879), and finally banned (1887), the import of live pigs. The lost German market amounted to almost 300,000 pigs per year and Denmark desperately needed to find a new market. The Danish imports were welcomed in the UK; the growth in population following the
Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...
meant that the country was no longer self-sufficient in food, but there was an increasing demand from a more affluent working class. The pig population grew from 442,441 in 1871 to nearly 2.5 million in 1914. At the time, British workers on average pay consumed bacon two to three times a week, and bacon and eggs became the traditional British breakfast. This had previously been quite unaffordable for the working class. By the end of the 19th century, 90% of Danish pig exports went to the UK and accounted for 20% of total Danish exports. This made Denmark the main supplier to the UK, replacing the U.S. which previously held that position. Danish Bacon still had more than 25% of the UK market in the 1980s.


The co-operatives

The first Danish farmer-owned co-operative bacon factory was established in 1887. There were soon more, and by 1897 there were dozens. By 1900 the co-operatives outnumbered private enterprises. By this time the export of live pigs had almost ceased, being replaced by export of pork and bacon. There followed intense competition between the co-operatives and private producers, with the co-operatives eventually winning out. The co-operatives had competition from foreign investors as well as indigenous enterprises. The first of these was I. D. Koopmann of Hamburg, who bought and opened new bacon factories in order to get around the German ban on live pigs. Koopmann refused to do business with the co-operatives, calling the movement "a sick idea". They worked closely with Denny & Co. of London—the Denny family were a major bacon manufacturer in Ireland and between them they controlled a large portion of the UK market. Denny's took over Koopmann's when the latter got into debt in 1894. Denny's never managed to get on top of the co-operatives, but they held on in Denmark until 1968 when they finally sold what was left of the Danish operation to the Federation of Danish Co-operatives. One co-operative group and another major foreign player, was a competitor of the Danish co-operatives. This was the English
Co-operative Wholesale Society A co-operative wholesale society, or CWS, is a form of co-operative federation (that is, a co-operative in which all the members are co-operatives), in this case, the members are usually consumer cooperatives. According to co-operative economi ...
(CWS). The CWS had depots in Denmark from 1881, taking advantage of the refusal of London dealers to buy from the co-operatives. From 1899, however, they started setting up their own manufacturing in Denmark. Production grew until 1930 but then slowly declined and CWS started selling up in 1971. The ''Danish Bacon'' brand first made an appearance in the UK when the Danish Bacon Agency Limited (later, the Danish Bacon Company, now a brand of Danish Crown) was set up in the
Port of London The Port of London is that part of the River Thames in England lying between Teddington Lock and the defined boundary (since 1968, a line drawn from Foulness Point in Essex via Gunfleet Old Lighthouse to Warden Point in Kent) with the North Sea ...
by the cooperatives in 1902 to handle exports to the UK. The Federation of Danish Co-operative Bacon Factories (De samvirkende danske Andels-Svineslagterier, from 1932 just Danske Slagterier) was formed in 1897, known in the UK as the Danish Bacon and Meat Council. The latter was responsible for UK marketing activities and promoted the ''Danish Bacon'' brand. From 1908 Danish law insisted that meat exports be slaughtered in public
slaughterhouse A slaughterhouse, also called abattoir (), is a facility where animals are slaughtered to provide food. Slaughterhouses supply meat, which then becomes the responsibility of a packaging facility. Slaughterhouses that produce meat that is no ...
s. Bacon was also inspected at
Esbjerg Esbjerg (, ) is a seaport town and seat of Esbjerg Municipality on the west coast of the Jutland peninsula in southwest Denmark. By road, it is west of Kolding and southwest of Aarhus. With an urban population of 71,698 (1 January 2022)
and stamped to indicate disease free status and the number of the slaughterhouse. After 1908 it was declared free of all preservatives apart from salt and smoking. Danske Slagterier was absorbed into the Danish umbrella organisation for agricultural producers and food processors (Landbrug & Fødevarer) in 2009 and ceased to exist as a separate organisation. Through a series of mergers and takeovers Danish Crown became the largest co-operative, and by 2000 controlled the vast majority of Danish slaughterhouses.


World wars

Danish bacon exports to the UK were interrupted during both world wars. During
World War One World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
the cause was the shortage of imported cereals with which to feed the pigs. In
World War Two World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
Danish ships supplying Britain had their cargo confiscated by the Germans or were even sunk. 6,500 tonnes of bacon were lost in this way. The
occupation of Denmark At the outset of World War II in September 1939, Denmark declared itself neutral. For most of the war, the country was a protectorate and then an occupied territory of Germany. The decision to occupy Denmark was taken in Berlin on 17 December ...
by the Germans in 1940 put a stop to exporting to Britain altogether.


Trade relations

Attempts were made to modernise British bacon production along Danish lines in the 1930s, but this was not altogether successful at displacing Danish bacon, despite trade restrictions being imposed. Danish bacon remained a major item of discussion in trade negotiations between the two countries and complaints about the disjointedness of British bacon production compared to that from Denmark were still taking place in
Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...
in the 1950s. Danish bacon established a reputation in Britain; the mildly cured taste was preferred to the heavily salted and
borax Borax is a salt (ionic compound), a hydrated borate of sodium, with chemical formula often written . It is a colorless crystalline solid, that dissolves in water to make a basic solution. It is commonly available in powder or granular form, ...
-laden bacon imports from the US. Attempts by other countries, such as
Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
, to establish bacon imports into Britain during this period used Danish bacon as the quality standard against which their product was judged.


Modernisation

Production methods moved from the traditional ''dry-curing'' process of rubbing salt, spices and sugar into the bacon to the less labour-intensive ''wet-curing'' process in which the bacon is left to soak in brine. Wet curing can also be used to increase the water content of the meat to add bulk and to add
sodium nitrate Sodium nitrate is the chemical compound with the formula . This alkali metal nitrate salt is also known as Chile saltpeter (large deposits of which were historically mined in Chile) to distinguish it from ordinary saltpeter, potassium nitrate. T ...
and phosphates to shorten the process, which can then take as little as six hours compared to 2–3 days for dry curing.Coff et al., page 90. There has been a growing movement by the co-operatives to centralise the slaughterhouse and bacon processing plants into ever larger establishments. The plants have been moved out of Denmark to more economically advantageous locations and this has partially happened to the slaughterhouses too, leaving Denmark to concentrate on just the raising of the pigs.Coff et al., page 86. In the 1960s, vacuum packing and automated slicing were introduced, which were carried out in plants in the UK. In the 1970s, mixed farms were still common, but farms then became more specialised in pig rearing and the process more industrialised. The number of farmer-owned co-operatives fell from 62 in 1962 to just two today.


Denmark imports bacon

In 2001, 5% of bacon consumed in Denmark was imported. During 2004 and 2005, bacon production was moved to Germany and especially
Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...
, where costs are lower. This almost immediately resulted in imports climbing to 75% and the price falling to one-third of Danish-produced bacon. However, the product is still marketed as ''Danish bacon'', since it is produced from Danish pigs. In Danish shops, it is not possible to buy conventionally produced Danish sliced bacon that has been sliced in Denmark. Danish consumers have expressed unhappiness with what they perceive to be a deceptive practice. In the UK, slicing and packaging of Danish bacon continues to be carried out in UK plants owned by Danish Crown.


The ''UK pig''

A specific system is in place to produce pigs for the UK market and these are referred to as ''UK pigs''. The specification for these pigs is not only determined by UK legislation but also by conditions set by the UK supermarkets who are the main customers. Similar schemes are in operation to produce pigs for other markets, such as ''organic pigs'' raised to EU Council regulations. The ''UK pig'' system was introduced following a call in the late 1990s by
William Hague William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...
, the leader of the British
Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...
(at the time in
opposition Opposition may refer to: Arts and media * ''Opposition'' (Altars EP), 2011 EP by Christian metalcore band Altars * The Opposition (band), a London post-punk band * ''The Opposition with Jordan Klepper'', a late-night television series on Comed ...
) to ban Danish bacon. Hague claimed that the "
sow stall A gestation crate, also known as a sow stall, is a metal enclosure in which a farmed sow used for breeding may be kept during pregnancy.Wilson G. Pond, Fuller W. Bazer, Bernard E. Rollin (eds.), ''Animal Welfare in Animal Agriculture'', CRC Press ...
" system used in Denmark put British pig farmers at a competitive disadvantage since they were not allowed to use this system under British animal welfare regulations. UK supermarkets responded by demanding improved pig welfare conditions, which resulted in the ''UK pig'' with sows able to move freely. Danish farmers were paid a supplement to cover the additional cost of rearing ''UK pigs''. Sow stalls were again criticised by celebrity chef
Jamie Oliver James Trevor Oliver MBE OSI (born 27 May 1975) is an English chef, restaurateur and cookbook author. He is known for his casual approach to cuisine, which has led him to front numerous television shows and open many restaurants. Oliver reache ...
in 2009 and the response from the Danish Bacon industry made it clear that they were still in use on some farms, but were all outphased before the EU deadline of 2013.


Controversy


Advertising

Danish Bacon has been heavily promoted on British television. A 1999 advertisement caused a large number of complaints to be received by the
Independent Television Commission The Independent Television Commission (ITC) licensed and regulated commercial television services in the United Kingdom (except S4C in Wales) between 1 January 1991 and 28 December 2003. History The creation of ITC, by the Broadcasting Act ...
. The ad made reference to the 1973 horror movie ''
The Exorcist ''The Exorcist'' is a 1973 American supernatural horror film directed by William Friedkin and written for the screen by William Peter Blatty, based on his 1971 novel of the same name. It stars Ellen Burstyn, Max von Sydow, Lee J. Cobb, Kitty W ...
'', a film which itself had been banned on video until that year. The ad "shows a teenage girl sitting on a bed in the midst of a fit. Suddenly her attention is drawn to the smell coming from a pan of frying bacon, and she grimaces as her head rotates 360 degrees suggesting her delight at the smell." It was criticised as tasteless, and since it ran in the daytime as well, many parents complained, leading the commission to prohibit the ad from being shown before 9pm.


In popular culture

In 2007, the Danish Bacon and Meat Council commissioned research at
Leeds University , mottoeng = And knowledge will be increased , established = 1831 – Leeds School of Medicine1874 – Yorkshire College of Science1884 - Yorkshire College1887 – affiliated to the federal Victoria University1904 – University of Leeds , ...
into what features make a perfect
bacon butty A bacon sandwich (also known in parts of the United Kingdom and New Zealand as a bacon butty, bacon bap or bacon sarnie, and in parts of Ireland as a rasher sandwich) is a sandwich of cooked bacon between bread that is optionally spread with but ...
(the researchers refused to use the term ''
sandwich A sandwich is a food typically consisting of vegetables, sliced cheese or meat, placed on or between slices of bread, or more generally any dish wherein bread serves as a container or wrapper for another food type. The sandwich began as a po ...
'' deeming this to be incorrect terminology). Among the findings were that texture and crispiness of the bacon were just as important as taste."The Perfect Bacon Sandwich Decoded: Crisp and Crunchy"
''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', 11 April 2007.


See also


References


Bibliography

*Coff, Christian; Barling, David; Korthals, Michiel; Nielsen, Thorkild
''Ethical Traceability and Communicating Food''
Springer, 2008 . *Danish Crown
"125 Years of Food History"
retrieved an
archived
29 April 2013. *Gridgeman, N. T
''Biological sciences at the National Research Council of Canada: the early years to 1952''
Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 1979, . *Karantininis, Kostas
"The network form of the cooperative organization—an illustration with the Danish pork industry"
in Karantininis, Kostas; Nilsson, Jerker (eds), ''Vertical Markets and Cooperative Hierarchies: The Role of Cooperatives in the Agri-food Industry'', pages 19–34, Springer, 2007 . *
National Institute of Economic and Social Research The National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR), established in 1938, is Britain's oldest independent economic research institute. The institute is a London-based independent UK registered charity that carries out academic researc ...

''Trade regulations and commercial policy of the United Kingdom''
Cambridge University Press, 1943 . *Sevaldsen, Jørgen; Bjørke, Bo; Bjørn, Claus, ''Britain and Denmark: political, economic, and cultural relations in the 19th and 20th centuries'', Museum Tusculanum Press, 2003 . *Strandskov, Jesper, ''Konkurrence & koncentration'', Syddansk universitetsforlag, 2011 . *Strandskov, Jesper; Pedersen, Kurt
"Pioneering FDI into the Danish bacon industry: building an agro-industrial diamond"
''Scandinavian Economic History Review'', volume 48, issue 3, 2000.


External links


Danish Agriculture and Meat Council
Official website {{Bacon Bacon Food brands of Denmark Food brands of the United Kingdom