UK supermarkets have been hit by a “bacon backlash” as consumers fear that chemicals used to preserve it increase the risk of cancer.
Campaigners against the use of nitrites in meat production claimed the fall in sales showed that a “consumer revolt” against the traditional, nitrite-cured form of bacon was gathering pace.
At the same time, sales of nitrite-free bacon – made by firms such as M&S, Waitrose and Finnebrogue – are rising, as bacon-lovers choose potentially safer alternatives.
In 2016, the World Health Organization declared that processed meat, including bacon, was a cause of cancer, just like smoking and asbestos.
Since then, the vast majority of bacon sold in the UK has still been treated with nitrites, to help maintain its pink colour. But campaigners said “a dramatic market shift” is under way.
New data collected by consumer analysts Worldpanel by Numerator and published by the Coalition Against Nitrites showed that the value of nitrite-cured bacon sales fell by 7.3% during the 12 weeks to 25 January compared with the same period the year before. Consumers bought £238.4m of such bacon in the most recent period, down £18.7m from the £257m of rashers bought a year earlier.
Conversely, sales of the nitrite-free alternative rose during that quarter to £9.4m, up 21.7% on the £7.8m seen in the same period a year earlier.
A campaign spokesperson said: “£18.7m has been wiped off nitrite-cured bacon sales in just three months. That’s not a fluctuation, it’s a consumer revolt. Shoppers … do not want additives in their food.”
Prof Chris Elliott, a leading food safety expert who is part of the Coalition Against Nitrites, said: “Consumers are moving first, responding to the overwhelming scientific evidence linking nitrite-cured meats to cancer and the realisation that these chemicals simply don’t need to be used to make the bacon and ham that so many of us love to eat.”
Labour, Conservative, Green, Liberal Democrat and Democratic Unionist MPs and peers back the coalition’s campaign to persuade ministers to order the use of nitrites in meat to be phased out.
Elliott added: “The use of carcinogenic nitrites is increasingly out of step with public expectations. This is no longer a fringe issue. It is a mainstream market correction, backed by cross-party political support.”
However, the Food Standards Agency said the link between nitrites and health “remains inconclusive”.
Separate sets of figures from the firm and NIQ, another sales tracking company, also showed that total sales of nitrite-cured bacon have fallen to just over £1bn a year.
According to Worldpanel by Numerator data, bacon sales fell by 4.9% year on year in the year to last November, down to a combined value of £1.03bn. However, sales of bacon containing no nitrites rose over that same period by 2.9% to just over £31m.
Rebecca Tobi, head of food business transformation at the Food Foundation thinktank, said: “Declining sales of traditional cured bacon will be good for the nation’s health in the long-term and the emergence of nitrite-free means that those who continue to eat bacon have a healthier alternative available.
“A third of the meat we eat in the UK is processed, a figure that’s even higher in children, despite the very strong body of evidence linking processed meat to a greater risk of developing a number of chronic diseases, including bowel cancer.” “
Nick Allen, the chief executive of trade body the British Meat Processors Association, said it was up to individual bacon producers to decide whether to use nitrites or not.
“While nitrites play an important role in food safety, the ultimate decision on the amount used in different curing recipes rests not with the processors, but with the product brand owners. Competing brands commission their own-label recipes, which can be quite varied.
“There has been significant and ongoing work by processors to reduce nitrites in cured pork products. Our producers have, over several years, been implementing new methods to get nitrite use as low as possible without jeopardising public health.”
