With its distinctive red packaging and savory smoked flavor, Oscar Mayer is one of the most iconic bacon brands around. But have you ever wondered exactly where Oscar Mayer bacon comes from before it lands in the supermarket fridge? In this article, we’ll explore Oscar Mayer’s modern day bacon supply chain and processing operations. We’ll also look back at the brand’s early history to see how this American breakfast staple got its start.
Overview of Kraft Heinz and Oscar Mayer Today
Oscar Mayer is currently owned by food giant Kraft Heinz. The brand’s bacon products come from Kraft Heinz’s extensive pork processing facilities located mostly in the Midwest region.
The company operates large-scale plants that source live hogs from contracted farms, process them, and produce Oscar Mayer’s full line-up of bacon to be distributed nationwide. It’s a highly industrialized operation that leverages economies of scale.
While not glamorous, these modern pork plants allow Oscar Mayer to produce large quantities of its popular bacon to meet demand However, this mass production system is vastly different from Oscar Mayer’s early artisanal origins.
The History Behind the Oscar Mayer Brand
Oscar Mayer was founded way back in 1883 by its namesake, Oscar F Mayer After immigrating from Germany, Mayer opened a small butcher shop in Chicago and built it into a successful local business.
Key milestones in Oscar Mayer’s early history:
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1883 – Oscar Mayer opens his own meat market in Chicago using $5,000 saved up from previous butcher jobs
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1900 – The company expands into making pre-packaged meats with Panic of 1893. This allowed people to buy affordable meat without visiting a butcher.
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1910 – Oscar Mayer’s sons take over daily operations, rapidly expanding distribution beyond Chicago via railcars.
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1920 – Nationwide advertising begins, positioning Oscar Mayer as a premium meat brand.
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1929 – The iconic yellow band is added to Oscar Mayer packaging to emphasize visual quality.
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1950 – Now the #1 brand, Oscar Mayer shifts to TV ads and begins producing hot dogs, bacon, and lunch meats.
So in its early days, Oscar Mayer hand-crafted quality meats for local customers. But visionary leadership and innovation gradually transformed it into the national meat powerhouse it is today.
Kraft Foods Buys Oscar Mayer in 1981
A major turning point came in 1981 when Oscar Mayer was acquired by Kraft Foods. This provided vast financial resources and distribution scale to dramatically grow the brand.
Under Kraft, production efficiency became the priority rather than artisanal quality. High volume processing allowed low cost bacon and other Oscar Mayer meats to be sold everywhere.
Oscar Mayer bacon went from being hand-trimmed and individually smoked to mass produced on fast conveyer systems. This trade-off enabled lower prices but some feel it diminished quality. Kraft Heinz continues to operate Oscar Mayer today.
Supply Chain and Sourcing of Oscar Mayer’s Pork
Oscar Mayer bacon’s supply chain has evolved drastically from its early butcher shop days. Today, the process looks like:
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Hog farming – Oscar Mayer contracts large hog farms across the Midwest to breed pigs according to their specifications.
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Transportation – Live hogs are trucked from finishing farms to Oscar Mayer processing plants.
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Processing – Hogs are harvested and processed into pork bellies and other raw cuts at high speeds.
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Bacon production – Pork bellies are machine-injected with brine, smoked, and sliced into bacon.
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Packaging – Bacon slices are packaged into the familiar red and yellow Oscar Mayer packaging.
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Distribution – Finished bacon products ship out to grocery stores and retailers across America.
It’s an incredibly streamlined, continuous operation managed by Kraft Heinz to pump out truckloads of bacon every day.
Major Oscar Mayer Bacon Processing Facilities
Oscar Mayer runs several large-scale processing plants that produce bacon along with other pork cuts and meats. Major facilities include:
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Madison, WI – One of Oscar Mayer’s legacy plants located in its hometown processes pork including bacon slices.
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Davenport, IA – A vast operation that handles 5,500 hogs per day and turns them into Oscar Mayer meats.
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Kansas City, MO – Produces sliced bacon along with hot dogs, deli meat, and pre-cooked ham.
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Perry, IA – One of Oscar Mayer’s highest volume plants churning out bacon, wieners, and lunchmeats.
The exact processing locations can vary over time depending on supply needs. But a handful of main plants form the core of Oscar Mayer’s bacon production apparatus.
Quality Control and Food Safety
Despite being mass-produced, Oscar Mayer aims to ensure its bacon meets certain standards:
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USDA oversight – All Oscar Mayer plants must meet USDA regulatory requirements.
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Quality inspections – Finished bacon batches are tested to ensure proper smoke level, thickness, color consistency, and accuracy of weight.
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Food safety – Extensive sanitation procedures, antimicrobial interventions, metal detection, and microbial testing help control hazards.
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Sustainability – Kraft Heinz has pledged to improve animal welfare and reduce water intensity of meat production by 2025.
By investing in food safety and quality protocols, Oscar Mayer works to prevent foodborne risks while maintaining the taste and texture bacon lovers expect.
Original Versus Turkey Bacon
Oscar Mayer’s traditional bacon is made purely from pork belly trimmings. But they also produce popular turkey bacon for consumers wanting an alternative protein source.
The main difference between pork versus turkey bacon is:
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Ingredient – Pork bacon comes from cured and smoked pork belly while turkey bacon comes from sliced turkey breast meat.
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Fat content – Pork bacon is higher in fat, with turkey bacon being 60-80% lower in fat and calories.
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Price – Turkey bacon costs a bit more than pork bacon due to higher poultry production costs.
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Flavor – Pork bacon is considered more flavorful and salty compared to the milder taste of turkey bacon.
Both types of Oscar Mayer bacon offer their own benefits it just depends on a consumer’s dietary needs and personal taste!
Oscar Mayer Bacon Packaging Has Evolved Too
In parallel with changes to production methods, Oscar Mayer’s packaging and marketing has adapted over the decades while retaining brand familiarity:
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Early 1900s – Product first wrapped in white paper butcher paper.
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1920s – Wax paper seals out air to better preserve freshness.
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1930s – Foil packaging introduced along with the yellow brand color.
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1950s – Reclosable plastic packaging debuts to enhance shelf life.
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1970s-1980s – Shifting to brighter, bolder graphics to stand out.
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2000s – Emphasis on bold photography of ingredients to cue freshness and flavor.
Some retro packaging charm may have been lost over the years, but innovations keep Oscar Mayer bacon seeming bright, appetizing, and convenient in modern times.
Is Oscar Mayer Bacon Worth the Price?
Oscar Mayer bacon costs a bit more than generic store brands. Factors impacting the pricing include:
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Brand recognition – Consumers associate Oscar Mayer with quality and are willing to pay a premium for the brand name.
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** Higher raw material costs** – Oscar Mayer specifies custom hogs with precise breed, diet, and genetics priced higher than commodity pork.
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Transportation – Costs incurred to ship fresh pork to select Oscar Mayer facilities rather than using only local commodity meat.
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Marketing – Major ad spending makes Oscar Mayer one of the most heavily marketed bacon brands.
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Ease of cooking – Uniform cut and cure helps Oscar Mayer bacon cook evenly with less splatter.
Supermarket shoppers have to decide if the extra flavor and performance is worth the increase in price versus generic bacon.
From its early roots as a Chicago butcher shop, Oscar Mayer has grown into one of the largest bacon producers nationwide. Their bacon now comes from fast-paced processing facilities that leverage scale efficiencies. While some traditional practices have been lost over the years, tried and true brand recognition keeps consumers coming back for more of that signature Oscar Mayer bacon. Next time you grab a pack from the shelf, take a moment to appreciate the fascinating meat supply chain story behind this ubiquitous American breakfast staple!
Why vegan bacon is better
A number of vegan bacon brands are trying to get people to choose plant-based bacon as an ethical and environmentally friendly option. They say Oscar Mayer is completely missing the point and might even be admitting that there are big problems with the way we eat animals.
Food tech company Umaro Foods, which was started by Beth Zotter and Amanda Stiles, was the first to create and use concentrated red seaweed protein as an umami-boosting ingredient in plant-based meat. The company started out by designing systems for farming seaweed off the coast of the United States. Now, it focuses on making branded foods with its own Umaro red seaweed protein. Umaro’s mission is to develop an entire food system using this sustainable source of vegan protein.
I believe the Oscar Mayer campaign is not very smart, but they are right about one thing: bacon makes all the parts of our brains that evolved to crave meat work. It’s almost like a drug,” Zotter tells VegNews. “That’s why we’ve designed a formula that can deliver on the most triggering component: the fatty taste. ”.
Umaro recently launched its first food product, vegan bacon, at select restaurants. Formulated with Umaro’s proprietary seaweed protein, the innovative bacon aims to replicate the sensory qualities of pork bacon.
Zotter says, “Ever since we began, we’ve also talked about how a good vegan bacon could be the ‘gateway,’ the one that finally lets people stop eating animal meat.”
Oscar Mayer is giving away a lifetime supply of bacon to meat-eaters who pledge to abstain from eating bacon on World Vegan Day. They’re completely missing the point, vegan bacon brands say.
Oscar Mayer, a brand of bacon made by Kraft Heinz, is giving away a lifetime supply of animal-based bacon to celebrate World Vegan Day. The goal of the campaign is to get people to eat more bacon. Consumers are only eligible if they pledge to “BacOFF,” or abstain from eating bacon during the holiday.
Calling bacon the “gateway meat,” Oscar Mayer’s “BacOFF” campaign positions its offering as the bacon worth cheating for. To help vegans stay on track, the brand is asking meat-eaters to show their support by promising on social media not to eat any bacon on World Vegan Day. As a reward, they will get free bacon for life.
The campaign is more than just the giveaway. The brand says it is blurring bacon on social media and taking it out of paid ads to make people less likely to be tempted.
That tasty bacon, smoked with real wood smoke for 12 hours, can make it hard for people to give up meat, said Anne Field, Head of North American Brand Communications, Oscar Mayer, Kraft Heinz Company. That’s why, in honor of World Vegan Day, we’re taking down the bacon-y ads that tempt people to buy our products and rewarding those who make the hard decision to stay away from the irresistible Don’t Bac-On, Bac-Off. ”.
BACON | How It’s Made
FAQ
Who makes Oscar Mayer bacon?
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Company type
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Subsidiary
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Founded
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1883
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Founder
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Oscar F. Mayer
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Headquarters
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Chicago, Illinois , U.S.
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Parent
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Kraft Heinz
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Is Oscar Mayer a good brand for bacon?
Are Oscar Mayer bacon bits real bacon?
Who owns Oscar Meyer?
Does Oscar Mayer make bacon crispy?
(That’s right, the pig gets no credit.) Oscar Mayer uses a fairly standard set of ingredients for industrial-cured bacon: water, salt, sugar, sodium phosphate, sodium ascorbate, and sodium nitrite. The verdict: We want crispy. We want crunchy. We do not want bacon that shatters into bits on the first bite, as Oscar Mayer’s did.
Where are Oscar Mayer sliced meats sold?
The company’s sliced meats and other products are sold across North America and in parts of South America and Asia. Oscar Mayer’s product line includes a wide range of popular meats, including hot dogs, bacon, and prepackaged lunch combinations.
What happened to Oscar Mayer & Co?
Now a two-plant operation, the company’s corporate name was changed that year to Oscar Mayer & Co. Oscar Mayer continued to be a marketing innovator over the next couple of decades. In 1924, the company introduced packaged sliced bacon under the Oscar Mayer brand name. A Milwaukee branch was also opened that year.
Was Oscar Mayer a real person?
Like Duncan Hines, Oscar Mayer was a real person. He was born in Bavaria in 1859, and emigrated to the US when he was 14. After apprenticing with a butcher and spending another six years working in a meatpacking plant, he had saved enough money to lease the Kolling Meat Market in Chicago.