9 March 2011

Wake up and smell the bacon – Fyshwick smallgoods producer best in ACT

| sxjane
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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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Knowing Rossco I think his tongue was planted firmly in his Guanciale!

But I know what he means, once you’ve tried traditional style quality smallgoods, it’s hard to go back to the mass produced stuff which is overwhelmingly made from cheap imported frozen pork.

We were an aware of that, because up until now we have not changed our prices.
Most people love a free tasting, Try before you buy concept 🙂

I am outraged at the underhand tactics employed by Balzanelli’s to sell their products at teh farmers markets.

Get this, they give you free samples!! Get you addicted on the free taste then jack the price up when you want a kilo. It’s just not fair!!!

YES>>>> we would love to post a story 🙂

georgesgenitals2:16 pm 09 Mar 11

balzanelli said :

But the most exciting news is that in a couple of weeks we will be opening our own Retail Deli in Fyshwick so be on the lookout for our opening …..

Awesome – any chance you could post a story here on RiotACT when you do? As a lover of animals (for eating purposes) I’ll definitely swing past and pick up some supplies!

At Balzanelli smallgoods, we work really hard at creating the best Quality Smallgoods we can.
Yes our products are available at the farmers Markets on a Saturday; you will even get to meet the founder himself.
We also stock our products throughout selected deli’s and IGA delis throughout the Canberra region, just ask if they stock Balzanelli.
We not only manufacture Bacon, we also produce Hams and Italian Deli Meats, which are also All Australian Pork products.
We have also won several awards for our Ham’s and Italian Deli lines.
For more check out our Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/pages/Balzanelli-Smallgoods/147610055249063 if you would like to get constant updates on what’s happening.
But the most exciting news is that in a couple of weeks we will be opening our own Retail Deli in Fyshwick so be on the lookout for our opening …..

Yes Balzanelli bacon is good and has been judged to be the best in Canberra but there are also others out there that are supporting Aussie farmers too.
You just need to look for the pink square Australian PorkMark logo when buying your bacon or other smallgoods.

BTW, we get most of our nitrate/nitrite intake from green leafy vegetables, not smallgoods.

Dante said :

Thanks Evan, looks like I’ll be making a mission out to the Farmer’s Markets next time I needs me some bacon… which is now.

If anyone knows of a cheap source of pork bellies, I’d sure love to hear about it. I make my own bacon (it’s not difficult, just takes a few weeks), but pork bellies and loins have skyrocketed in price since they became all fashionable in the cooking world. Damn things cost more than commercially made bacon per kilo.

It always amuses me greatly that the Pork Australia offices in Deakin are next door to the Heart Foundation offices.

Thanks Evan, looks like I’ll be making a mission out to the Farmer’s Markets next time I needs me some bacon… which is now.

Dante said :

What retailers in Canberra stock Balzanelli Smallgoods?

I have seen Balzanelli selling their stuff at markets, Hall springs to mind. They have a small pantechnicon or van with their logo on it. They don’t seem to have a website but this is quite informative:
http://www.buyaustralianmade.com.au/clients/422-balzanelli-smallgood
and they mention a Facebook page too.

What retailers in Canberra stock Balzanelli Smallgoods?

This is good stuff. Ham, bacon and pork has become amazingly confusing in recent years. A while back, the big supermarkets began selling full hams at amazingly cheap prices . It emerged that the meat was manufactured meat, made from foreign (Canadian) meat, which was made to look like non-manufactured meat, and wrapped around Australian pork bones, so it could be labelled as Australian. Quite a few bacons are also manufactured and shaped to look like normal bacon.

There’s a growing market for ham and bacon made locally, and especially these things made without chemicals like Nitrites, which some people are sensitive to, and claims have been made that Nitrites are carcenogenic.

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