A Fyshwick smallgoods producer has been declared the ACT’s best in a competition to find the best bacon rasher in the country, made using only 100 per cent Australian pork. The Awards for Excellence are part of the festivities of Australian Bacon Week, commencing Monday March 7.
While Australian Bacon Week is an annual celebration of everyone’s favorite breakfast food, it is more importantly a show of support for the local pork farmers as well as Aussie bacon, ham and smallgoods manufacturers that are committed to using and selling products made with 100 per cent Australian pork.
An initiative of Australian Pork Limited (APL), Australian Bacon Week was conceived to raise awareness of the local industry’s ongoing fight against imported pig meat, spearheaded by the PorkMark program. Countries like Denmark, USA and Canada have highly subsidised agricultural industries and as such are able to export enormous amounts of frozen, boneless pork, destined for smallgood manufacturing in Australia. More than $10 million worth of imported pork meat arrives in Australia every week to be made into the likes of bacon and ham. (NOTE: Fresh pork HAS to be 100% Australian by law).
APL CEO Andrew Spencer says: “Our consumer research has shown 95 per cent of consumers prefer to buy Australian. They find the current labelling for bacon very confusing and at times misleading. For example ‘Made in Australia’ does not mean the product is made from Australian grown pork, only that it has been manufactured here. The harsh reality is that between 70 to 80 per cent of bacon is made from imported pork. This pork is imported frozen, thawed out and then manufactured into bacon in Australia. The only way to be really sure you’re buying bacon or indeed any type of smallgoods product made using Australian pork is to look for the pink Australian PorkMark as your guarantee of Australian origin”.
This year, 97 bacons from 72 manufacturers were registered as part of the national awards, entries were then judged by two chefs and a fleishmeister on a variety of factors including appearance, aroma, texture, shrinkage and of course, taste.*
Marco Balzanelli of Balzanelli Smallgoods has been named best bacon producer in the ACT.
Currently, there are 293 butchers and smallgoods producers licensed to carry the Australian PorkMark on their products. Since the inception of Australian Bacon Week in 2010, the number of licensees nation wide has more than doubled, indicating the growing push from the Australian public to buy local and the subsequent real value proposition that being part of the Australian PorkMark program brings to businesses.
During Australian Bacon Week, hundreds of licensees around the country will be conducting in-store promotions which include bacon taste testing, price promotions as well as Australian bacon buy one get one free specials among other localised events.
Balzanelli Smallgoods
7 Isa St, Fyshwick
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