Good news: your weekend fry-up or Friday bacon butty could soon be better for you. Bacon that is said to be free of nitrites, preservatives, E numbers and allergens will soon appear on supermarket shelves in what is being called “a remarkable feat of food technology”.
The Northern Irish food manufacturer Finnebrogue claims its Naked Bacon contains no nitrites – salts from chemical or natural sources added as a preservative, anti-microbial agent and colour fixative.
The World Health Organization concluded in 2015 that processed meat, including bacon, is carcinogenic. It said one possible reason was that nitrites in the body could form carcinogenic compounds called nitrosamines that damage DNA.
Finnebrogue said it worked with a Spanish chemist to develop the new flavouring from natural Mediterranean fruit and spice extracts and apply it to British bacon for the first time.
A growing number of farmers and butchers have started to offer nitrite-free bacon in recent years, but Finnebrogue believes its product is the first to look and taste like traditional bacon and maintain a similar shelf life.
Prof Chris Elliott, who led the inquiry into the horsemeat scandal and chairs the Institute for Global Food Security at Queen’s University Belfast, said: “Many forms of processed foods have come under the spotlight over recent years for their unhealthy attributes. Processed red meat in particular has been a focal point.