Inspiration

Bacon

All Waitrose bacon comes from our dedicated British farmers.

What's special about Waitrose bacon?

Good bacon starts with the way the pigs are reared, and we source all of our bacon from the same farms that supply our fresh pork. We know our farmers and suppliers personally - some of them have been working exclusively for Waitrose for as long as 15 years - so they share our commitment to achieving the highest standards of quality, food safety and animal welfare. It's this long-term relationship that gives our farmers the stability to invest in sustainable farming methods. All our bacon can be traced back to the farm where it was raised.

essential Waitrose British bacon

essential Waitrose British bacon is expertly prepared using prime cuts of pork, then cured for flavour. The pork comes from pigs born and weaned outdoors, on farms predominantly in East Anglia. After weaning, the pigs are moved to light, airy barns with straw bedding, with room to express their natural behaviours, and are fed a natural cereal-based diet. Sold prepacked in all our stores, the range includes smoked and unsmoked back bacon and smoked and unsmoked streaky bacon to name but a few.

Dry and speciality cured bacon

The pork used to make both our dry and speciality-cured bacon comes from the same farms as our English bacon. Dry curing is the traditional way of preserving pork, by carefully rubbing sea salt into the meat by hand. The meat is then left to mature, before being sliced into rashers. Dry cured bacon is available both from the service meat counter and prepacked. Speciality cures include maple cure.

Free range bacon

This is produced exclusively for us on a limited number of specialist farms based in Norfolk, Suffolk and Wiltshire, from English outdoor reared pigs sired by Hampshire boars. This traditional breed is renowned for the unique flavour and succulence of its meat, which is available in the prepacked bacon aisle and on selected service counters.

Organic bacon

This comes from pigs reared on a small number of specially selected organic farms in East Anglia. They're free to roam outside, and fed an organic, cereal-based diet. The farms are regularly monitored by the relevant organic accreditation bodies.

How does Waitrose look after animal welfare?

All our pig farmers work to either the Assured British Pig Scheme or the Genesis Assurance Scheme and the RSPCA Freedom Food Scheme, and are regularly independently audited to ensure high standards of welfare and animal husbandry. Pigs are only transported by hauliers approved by either Assured British Pigs or Genesis and Freedom Food, and journeys may not last longer than four hours (most are under 1.5 hours). On arrival, the pigs are inspected by an Independent Veterinary Surgeon and given fresh water.

Our commitment to animal welfare has been recognised by the RSPCA and Compassion in World Farming, both of which have given specific praise to our pig production systems. We continue to look at ways which can improve our animal welfare standards further.

Try these bacon recipes:

Mackerel Baked With Sage And Bacon

5 stars out of 5

It is one of nature's happy accidents that the tastes of mackerel and bacon combine to their mutual benefit. The key to getting the best out of mackerel is to make sure you buy firm, shiny fish with glistening eyes. Ask your fishmonger to fillet two mackerel into four pieces each. He will cut the mackerel into two fillets, then you should cut each fillet into two lengthways. This will leave you with eight fillets.