Danish Bacon facts for kids
Danish Bacon was a well-known brand of bacon from Denmark that was sold in the United Kingdom. You could often tell it was Danish because it had "Danish" stamped on its rind with wavy lines. The farmers and co-operatives in Denmark who produced this bacon were part of an organization called Danske Slagterier. Most Danish bacon today comes from a large farmer-owned group called Danish Crown. This system helps keep costs low because they produce a huge amount of bacon (about 25 million pigs each year!) and don't need to use traditional markets. Most of the bacon they make is sent to other countries.
Danish pig exports to the UK began in the mid-1800s. This happened when it became hard to sell pigs to Germany. Since then, these exports have grown a lot. Even though UK producers and other countries have tried to compete, Denmark has kept ahead. They have done this by making their bacon-curing process more modern and by bringing their operations together in larger, central places.
Today, Denmark focuses mainly on raising pigs. The actual process of curing and packing the bacon often happens in other countries. Even so, this bacon is still sold as "Danish," which can sometimes be a bit confusing, even in Denmark! Pigs meant for the UK market used to be raised separately. This was because the UK had concerns about how pigs were treated in Denmark. However, this special separation stopped in 2013 when new rules about sow stalls (small pens for mother pigs) were put in place across the whole European Union.
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How Danish Bacon is Organized
Most pig farms in Denmark are part of one of two big farmer-owned co-operatives. These co-operatives handle about 95% of all pigs that are processed. The biggest one is Danish Crown, which alone handles 90% of the pigs. All bacon that is exported from Denmark goes through these two co-operatives. There are some smaller processing places that only sell bacon within Denmark.
Even though it can be expensive to produce bacon in Denmark and there are many rules, the country has become very good at it. They have a competitive edge because their co-operatives are very large and work together closely. This system doesn't use traditional markets or auctions. Instead, prices are set each week by a committee. This saves a lot of money because animals don't need to be moved around as much.
About 25 million pigs are processed in Denmark each year. That's like 5 pigs for every person living in Denmark! Pig production is still growing. For example, it went from 17.7 million pigs in 1992 to 21.4 million in 2002. By 2004, it reached 24.7 million. They plan for it to grow by 2% each year in the future. About 75% of all this bacon is sent to other countries.
A Look Back at Danish Bacon History
In the 1800s, Denmark mostly sold grain to the UK. But then, countries like the United States and Russia started selling grain for cheaper. So, Denmark began to switch to raising pigs and making butter from dairy cows. English Large White pigs were even sent to Denmark in the early 1800s to help improve their pig breeds.
By 1900, grain made up less than 3% of Denmark's exports, down from almost half in the mid-1800s. Denmark had been selling bacon to the UK since at least 1847. But large-scale production really started in 1864. This was because of the Second Schleswig War, which made it impossible to send live pigs to Hamburg, Germany, where they used to be processed. Denmark had to start doing this work at home.
Selling bacon to the UK became even more important after Germany put up trade barriers in 1879 and then completely banned live pig imports in 1887. Denmark had been selling pigs to Germany for centuries, and this ban meant they lost a market of almost 300,000 pigs per year. They urgently needed to find new buyers.
The UK welcomed Danish bacon. After the Industrial Revolution, the UK population grew, and the country couldn't produce enough food for itself. Also, working-class people had more money and wanted more food. The number of pigs in Denmark grew from about 442,000 in 1871 to nearly 2.5 million by 1914.
At that time, British workers often ate bacon two or three times a week. Bacon and eggs became a traditional British breakfast. Before this, it was too expensive for many working-class families. By the end of the 1800s, 90% of all Danish pig exports went to the UK. This made up 20% of everything Denmark exported! Denmark became the main supplier of bacon to the UK, taking over from the U.S. Even in the 1980s, Danish Bacon still made up more than 25% of the UK market.
The Rise of Co-operatives
The first bacon factory owned by Danish farmers as a co-operative opened in 1887. More soon followed, and by 1897, there were dozens. By 1900, co-operatives were more common than private businesses. At this time, sending live pigs out of the country almost stopped, and instead, pork and bacon were exported.
There was strong competition between the co-operatives and private producers. The co-operatives eventually became the most successful. They also faced competition from foreign companies. One of these was I. D. Koopmann from Hamburg, Germany. He bought and opened new bacon factories in Denmark to get around Germany's ban on live pigs. Koopmann didn't want to work with the co-operatives, calling their idea "sick." They worked closely with Denny & Co. of London, a big bacon maker from Ireland. Together, they controlled a large part of the UK market.
Denny's took over Koopmann's business in 1894 when Koopmann got into debt. Denny's never managed to beat the co-operatives. They stayed in Denmark until 1968 when they finally sold their Danish operations to the Federation of Danish Co-operatives. Another major foreign player was the English Co-operative Wholesale Society (CWS). CWS had offices in Denmark from 1881. They took advantage of the fact that some London dealers refused to buy from the Danish co-operatives. From 1899, CWS started setting up their own factories in Denmark. Their production grew until 1930 but then slowly went down. CWS started selling off its Danish businesses in 1971.
The Danish Bacon brand first appeared in the UK in 1902. This was when the Danish Bacon Agency Limited (later called the Danish Bacon Company, and now part of Danish Crown) was set up in the Port of London. Its job was to handle exports to the UK. The Federation of Danish Co-operative Bacon Factories was formed in 1897. In the UK, it was known as the Danish Bacon and Meat Council. This council was in charge of marketing Danish Bacon in the UK.
From 1908, Danish law required that all meat for export had to be processed in public slaughterhouses. Bacon was also checked at Esbjerg and stamped to show it was free of disease and to identify the slaughterhouse. After 1908, it was also declared free of all preservatives except salt and smoking.
Danske Slagterier, the main organization, became part of a larger Danish farming and food group in 2009. It no longer exists as a separate group. Through many mergers and takeovers, Danish Crown became the biggest co-operative. By 2000, it controlled most of the slaughterhouses in Denmark.
World Wars and Trade
Danish bacon exports to the UK were stopped during both world wars. In World War One, it was because there wasn't enough imported grain to feed the pigs. In World War Two, German forces would take or sink Danish ships carrying bacon to Britain. About 6,500 tonnes of bacon were lost this way. When Germany occupied Denmark in 1940, all exports to Britain stopped completely.
After the wars, people tried to make British bacon production more like Denmark's. But this didn't fully stop Danish bacon from being popular, even with some trade rules. Danish bacon was often a big topic in trade talks between the two countries. Even in the 1950s, people in the UK Parliament were still complaining that British bacon production wasn't as organized as Denmark's.
Danish bacon became famous in Britain. People liked its mild taste better than the very salty bacon from the US. When other countries, like Canada, tried to sell bacon to Britain during this time, they often used Danish bacon as the standard for quality.
Modern Ways of Making Bacon
Bacon production changed from the old dry-curing method (rubbing salt and spices into the meat) to a less labor-intensive wet-curing process. In wet-curing, the bacon soaks in salty water. This method can also add more water to the meat to make it heavier. It can also use special ingredients to make the process much faster, taking only about six hours compared to 2–3 days for dry-curing.
The co-operatives have been making their slaughterhouses and bacon processing plants bigger and more centralized. Some of these plants have even moved out of Denmark to places where it's cheaper to operate. This means Denmark now mostly focuses on just raising the pigs. In the 1960s, new methods like vacuum packing and automatic slicing were introduced. These steps were often done in plants in the UK. In the 1970s, many farms raised different animals, but then they started to specialize more in just raising pigs, and the process became more industrial. The number of farmer-owned co-operatives dropped from 62 in 1962 to just two today.
Denmark Imports Bacon Too
In 2001, about 5% of the bacon eaten in Denmark was imported from other countries. Between 2004 and 2005, much of the bacon production moved to Germany and especially Poland, where costs are lower. This quickly led to imports making up 75% of the bacon sold in Denmark, and the price dropped to one-third of what Danish-produced bacon cost. However, this bacon is still sold as Danish bacon because it comes from Danish pigs. In Danish shops, you can't buy conventionally produced Danish sliced bacon that has been sliced in Denmark. Some Danish shoppers are unhappy about this, feeling it's a bit misleading. In the UK, Danish bacon is still sliced and packaged in UK plants owned by Danish Crown.
The "UK Pig" System
There's a special system for raising pigs specifically for the UK market. These are called UK pigs. The rules for these pigs are set not only by UK laws but also by the big UK supermarkets that buy them. Similar systems exist for pigs going to other markets, like organic pigs raised according to EU Council rules.
The UK pig system started in the late 1990s. At that time, William Hague, a British politician, suggested banning Danish bacon. He claimed that the "sow stall" system used in Denmark (where mother pigs were kept in small pens) put British pig farmers at a disadvantage. This was because British animal welfare rules didn't allow sow stalls. UK supermarkets responded by asking for better pig welfare conditions. This led to the UK pig system, where mother pigs could move around freely. Danish farmers were paid extra to cover the costs of raising these UK pigs.
Sow stalls were criticized again in 2009 by a famous chef, Jamie Oliver. The Danish Bacon industry explained that they were still used on some farms but were all phased out before the EU deadline in 2013.
Advertising Danish Bacon
Danish Bacon was advertised a lot on British television. One advertisement in 1999 received many complaints. The ad was inspired by a horror movie called The Exorcist. The advertisement showed a teenage girl who seemed unwell. Her attention was caught by the smell of frying bacon, and she reacted in a strange way, showing her delight at the smell. People said the ad was in bad taste. Since it was shown during the day, many parents complained. This led to the advertising commission banning the ad from being shown before 9 pm.
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