Bacon It’s the sizzling slice of salty, smoky heaven that can turn any dish into a mouthwatering masterpiece. But when you grab a pack of bacon off the shelf, do you ever wonder where that tasty treat hails from? Specifically, does Hormel bacon come from China? It’s a question that has been sizzling on the minds of bacon lovers across America
As one of the biggest bacon producers in the US., Hormel holds an esteemed position in bringing home the bacon to breakfast tables, burgers and BLTs across the country But how exactly does Hormel manage to meet the massive demand for bacon from bacon-crazed Americans? Let’s slice through the rumors and get to the meaty truth behind Hormel’s bacon production.
Sourcing the Pork: American Hogs for American Bacon
The first step to making bacon is getting the right pork. Hormel sources their pork bellies from American hog farms located predominantly in the Midwest. This includes states like Iowa Minnesota Illinois and Indiana. By using pork from U.S. hog producers, Hormel can ensure quality control and consistent taste from snout to tail.
In fact, most pork processing plants are located near hog farms for easier access to a steady supply of pork bellies. Transporting fresh bellies quickly minimizes waste and provides optimal raw materials for crafting irresistible bacon. So when you bite into a crispy slice of Hormel Black Label bacon, you can rest assured that hog came from an American farm.
From Farm to Table: Transforming Pork into Bacon
Once the pork bellies arrive at Hormel’s processing facilities, that’s when the magic happens. They utilize a traditional process of slowly curing the bellies with water, salt, sugars and spices. This imparts that signature salty-smoky-sweet flavor we know and love.
After curing for 4-7 days, the pork bellies move on to the smoking stage. By exposing the meat to smoke for up to 14 hours, it develops that quintessential bacon taste and color. Hormel smokes their bacon using real hardwood chips like apple, maple or hickory. This adds nuanced flavors and aromas that balance the savory, salty characteristics.
The final steps involve slicing, packaging and distributing to retailers across all 50 states. Thanks to state-of-the-art facilities and efficient processes, Hormel can pump out over 90 million pounds of bacon per year! That’s a whole lot of sizzling satisfaction being delivered across America.
Keeping Production Stateside
In today’s globally connected world, large companies often operate facilities worldwide to meet demand in different countries. However, Hormel remains dedicated to keeping their bacon production on U.S. soil in factories scattered across key pork-producing regions.
The vast majority of their processing plants are located in states like Iowa, Nebraska, Minnesota, Illinois and Wisconsin. By geographically locating near hog farms, they can uphold stringent standards and maintain quality control from start to finish.
The fact that Hormel bacon is processed domestically also adheres to federal regulations. Country of origin labeling laws require packaged bacon to be clearly marked if it is foreign-made. Since you won’t find “made in China” stickers on Hormel bacon, you can be certain that deliciousness was crafted right here in the USA.
Why the China Rumors Don’t Add Up
Every few years, rumors start swirling that Hormel’s bacon comes from China. So where did this porky predicament originate?
Back in 2013, a Chinese company named Shuanghui acquired the U.S. pork producer Smithfield Foods. This raised eyebrows about China’s interests in American food companies and added fuel to the rumor fire surrounding Hormel.
However, it’s important to note that while Smithfield is owned by a Chinese company, they still operate as a U.S.-based pork supplier. Their products adhere to American inspection standards and regulations.
The acquisition likely stirred up unfounded suspicions about other major pork brands like Hormel. But just because one company has a Chinese parent corporation does not mean that all American bacon originates in China.
In reality, Hormel remains a completely independently owned and operated American company. They have no Chinese affiliation aside from exporting some of their Spam products to China’s markets.
Why Buying American Bacon Matters
When you pick up a package of sizzling Hormel bacon at the grocery store, you can take comfort knowing that you’re supporting American farmers, workers and the local economy. By sourcing pork from U.S. hog farms and keeping production domestic, Hormel provides vital jobs and resources to American communities from coast to coast.
On top of that, you can be confident that U.S. raised, processed and packaged bacon aligns with America’s high standards of food safety and quality control. Although imports help meet consumer demands, domestically produced bacon means full accountability every step of the process.
So next time you dig into a irresistible BLT made with delicious Hormel bacon, you can declare it’s American from snout to stomach. Hormel’s commitment to stateside sourcing and production keeps the sizzle at home where it belongs.
Hormel Bacon: American-Made from Snout to Stomach
When it comes to America’s insatiable love affair with bacon, Hormel undoubtedly brings home the bacon. From farm to table, their dedication to domestic sourcing and processing ensures a quality product that aligns with America’s high standards.
Although globalization opens doors for international corporate expansion across all industries, Hormel remains committed to keeping bacon production on U.S. soil. By transparently labeling country of origin and avoiding outsourcing pork or processing abroad, they maintain integrity within their supply chain.
So next time you fry up a few strips of Hormel bacon and take that first crunchy, savory, smoky bite, you can truly taste America in every flavorful morsel. Because nothing says “made in the USA” like the unbeatable taste of homegrown bacon raised and crafted by American hands.
Shuanghui’s generous proposal
Four months after that phone call, Larry Pope sat before the U. S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry. The deal had been publicly announced in May. Shuanghui had made an attractive offer – a 30 percent premium over Smithfield’s publicly traded share price.
As CEO, Pope stood to earn at least $26. 9 million in bonuses from the sale of America’s largest pork company.
The U. S. Treasury Department was in the midst of reviewing the takeover for any national security risks. That review, by an obscure office within the department, was to remain classified per U. S. law.
There were calls for a public hearing. U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley from Iowa said he wanted to know whether the Chinese government controlled Shuanghui. Debbie Stabenow, the Michigan senator who headed the agriculture committee, wanted to know the same and called Pope to testify.
It wasn’t mere curiosity. Two years earlier, the Chinese government had signaled its strong desire for overseas agriculture. It had unveiled its five-year plan, which amounts to the Communist Party’s roadmap for the country’s economy. A major focus of this plan: buying up overseas farmland and foreign food companies.
In 2011, the year the five-year plan was announced, Chinese nationals owned $81 million worth of U.S. farmland.
By the end of 2012, the Chinese owned $900 million in U. S. farmland – a 1,000 percent increase – making them the largest buyers that year, according to the U. S. Department of Agriculture.
The Smithfield deal included another $480 million in U. S. farmland, which would push the Chinese stake to nearly $1. 4 billion in less than two years.
Pope calmly addressed the senators in his measured Southern cadence. He assured them the Smithfield deal was simply the case of one private company buying another. He testified that the Chinese government had absolutely no management control in Shuanghui.
Pope explained that the deal would create jobs in the U. S. , not destroy them. Shuanghui’s plan to bring in more American pork would increase production at Smithfield’s 460 hog farms. This would give farmers more money and give more people jobs at the slaughterhouses.
“China is looking to another market to help feed its growing demand,” Pope said. “I think it is good for America. I think this is the opportunity America has been looking for to import jobs.”
Stabenow pushed back. She wanted to know why Smithfield couldn’t sell more pork in China as an American company and why the only way to get into the world’s biggest pork market was for a Chinese company to buy Smithfield. The Chinese government was unfairly blocking American hog farmers from exporting there, she said.
Stabenow came to the conclusion that the Chinese government would never let Smithfield buy Shuanghui if the roles were switched.
Pope found a more sympathetic ear in U. S. Sen. Pat Roberts from Kansas, which is a key state for the production of livestock feed.
American grain companies had supported the deal. In the past five years, China has become their biggest foreign customer.
Roberts made fun of people who were against the deal by asking Pope, “Did you know you were the target of a Chinese communist plot?”
Laughter broke out in the hearing. Pope chuckled.
“Senator, I did not,” he said.
Roberts laughed again as he asked, “And the control of your company to let China control the pork industry?”
“Senator, I was not aware of that,” Pope responded, a smile spreading across his face.
ListenNathan Halverson takes us inside this major investigation of
Smithfield Foods, producer of the iconic holiday ham, was one of America’s flagship food companies, steeped in centuries of U.S. tradition.
The Virginia-based pork company derived its ham from a curing process Native Americans taught settlers five centuries ago. It owned a piece of Main Street in the cute town of Smithfield, which included a restaurant, an old Southern hotel, and the company’s main office, which was close by.
C. Larry Pope, its president and CEO, had a fireplace in his sprawling executive office, which looked more like a hunting lodge than the command center for what had become America’s largest pork business.
But in 2013, a Chinese firm bought this quintessential slice of Americana – Main Street and all. The takeover, valued at $7. 1 billion, remains the largest-ever Chinese acquisition of an American company.
Naturally, it riled patriots and protectionists. Pope’s mother asked him why he sold to the communists. Pope also had to defend himself in the local newspaper: “These are not Russian communists. They like Americans. ”.
Some xenophobia was to be expected. Anti-Chinese racism in America goes back nearly as far as, well, holiday ham.
But behind all the flag waving and Red Scare stunts is a stark new reality: Chinese companies have started buying things all over the world at the request of their government. This is the next step in their unprecedented economic experiment. And they’re targeting a resource that climate scientists, economists, the U. S. government, even Wall Street, all forecast will become dangerously scarce in the coming decades: food.
Food is about to become the oil of the 21st century. There won’t be enough to go around, so people will be ready for wars, riots, and uprisings.
“We have a situation in the world food economy today where the growth in demand is exceeding the supply,” said Lester Brown, a food economist and founder of the Earth Policy Institute.
As the world’s population rises, crops like soy, wheat, and corn, which are used to make most other foods, like pasta, bread, and meat from animals, become less plentiful. Every day, 220,000 more people need to be fed. At the same time, the United Nations says that global warming destroys up to 2% of the world’s crop production every ten years.
“It is part of the transition from an age of surplus to one of scarcity,” Brown said.
The thought of still being alive in 2050, when the world’s population is expected to reach at least 9 billion people, is scary. Will everyone be able to eat? Will politicians be able to work out a way for everyone to get enough food and water?
The Center for Investigative Reporting helped launch an initiative called Food for 9 Billion in 2011 that set out to answer some of these questions. As part of that effort, I spent nearly a year examining the Smithfield Foods takeover. What I learned goes far beyond pork.
The world is set for a geopolitical struggle over food.
Tens of millions of Chinese people are eating more as they move from poverty to the middle class, which means that food shortages are already starting to form in the country. Chinese businesses, both state-owned and privately held, are being told by the government to buy agricultural resources from all over the world, such as Africa, Europe, and the US.
With the Smithfield purchase, a Chinese company now owns 1 in 4 pigs raised in the U.S.
The question for U. S. lawmakers is: Did the Smithfield takeover show that international trade was going as usual, or did it show that one of the world’s most powerful governments was trying to control food supplies?
If the Chinese government was involved in the 2013 deal, some influential U. S. lawmakers say they need to take action to protect against foreign intervention in a vital U. S. resource.
Pope and others who stood to gain from the Smithfield deal didn’t see the Chinese government as having anything to do with the takeover. The government does not control Shuanghui International or its acquisition of Smithfield Foods, they said at the time. This is simply one private company buying another.
“Shuanghui is not a state-controlled company,” Pope said in the summer of 2013, when U. S. regulators still were reviewing the deal for national security risks.
He testified to Congress that the Chinese government has no management control over Shuanghui.
That, however, is not the case.
The largest-ever Chinese acquisition of an American company began with an unexpected phone call in March 2013.
Larry Pope sat in his office. He was trained as an accountant and had spent the last 33 years working his way up at Smithfield Foods, the biggest pork company in the country and the main employer in Smithfield, Virginia, a small town of 8,200 people.
Pope’s office looked out over a calm branch of the James River, which is about 30 miles away from where the first settlers sailed and built Jamestown. There were autographed items from NASCAR legend Richard Petty lying around his office. The company sponsored Petty, and his car had the Smithfield logo on it.
It had been seven years since Pope became CEO of Smithfield Foods, taking over from the grandson of the company’s founder. The 46,000 people who worked for the company around the world, the research lab that genetically modified the world’s leanest pigs, and nine slaughterhouses, including the biggest in the world in North Carolina, were all under his control.
The company processed 32 million pigs a year. Every second, on average, one pig went through a Smithfield Foods processing plant to be killed, butchered, packaged, and sent out to people to eat. Bacon, ribs and other pork cuts made Smithfield a multibillion-dollar company.
Smithfield supplied restaurant chains such as McDonald’s and Denny’s and many grocery stores in the United States. It was the peak of industrialized farming in the United States. It owned hog farms in Iowa, slaughterhouses outside of Chicago, and warehouses and delivery trucks that went all over the US, Canada, and Europe.
But Smithfield Foods was struggling. Its share price had fallen over the past five years. The company had gone through a series of layoffs. Major shareholders were getting restless. They wanted Pope to take drastic measures.
The phone rang in Pope’s office. It was Russell Colaco, an investment banker with Morgan Stanley. Pope knew Colaco and his reputation as a big-time dealmaker. And Colaco knew Pope’s interest in buying a 20 percent stake in China’s largest meat company, Shuanghui International.
Pope wanted to grow Smithfield Foods and keep his investors from getting too worried. One part of his plan was to tap into China’s growing consumer market.
The Chinese already eat half of the world’s pork, and every year they get richer and hungrier for meat. In just one generation, China’s rapidly rising wealth has turned a country of poor people who ate rice and noodles into the world’s biggest middle class, whose members can now afford to eat more meat.
But getting Smithfield pork into China wasn’t simply a matter of shipping it overseas. China had strict rules about importing pork from the US. For example, they wouldn’t let any meat from Smithfield or other companies that use growth hormones into their products. So Pope had negotiated – using a Chinese interpreter – with Shuanghui’s chairman, Wan Long.
Wan turned a government-owned slaughterhouse, which he took over as manager in 1984, into China’s biggest meat company. He eventually put it on the Hong Kong stock exchange and became the company’s biggest individual shareholder.
Pope proposed to Wan that they take a 20 percent stake in each other’s companies. In Wan, Smithfield would find a strong ally. Wan is a member of the National People’s Congress and has political ties to China’s top leaders.
Smithfield Foods made more than twice as much money as Shuanghui and had a lot more global reach and pork technology than Shuanghui. However, growth rates in China were much higher, so the partnership would be fair.
China had the consumers. America had the pigs. It was a match made in free-market heaven.
Pope picked up the phone. Colaco cut straight to the deal. The Chinese were ready, he said. But it wasn’t a partnership they wanted.
“What is it?” Pope asked.
“They’d like to buy all of Smithfield.”
Pope was taken aback.
“Russ, that wasn’t the call I was expecting.”
“They are very interested in making this happen.”
“Smithfield is not for sale,” Pope shot back.
But then Pope equivocated. The shareholders were on his mind. Smithfield needed to boost sales. A potential fortune lay in China.
“But I do like this discussion,” he finished.
Both Pope and Colaco told me that they remembered the call as cordial and succinct. They hung up, agreeing to talk again.
Pope thought he could get into the huge Chinese market, but all of a sudden, he was being taken over by people from the very place he had gone to hide.
The Chinese didn’t want to save him. They wanted to buy him.
How It’s Made: Chinese Bacon by Masterchef • Taste Show
FAQ
Is hormel meat processed in China?
Where does Hormel get their meat from?
Who makes Hormel bacon?
What country is Hormel Foods from?
When did Hormel start selling Ham?
The company originally focused on the packaging and selling of ham, sausage and other pork, chicken, beef and lamb products to consumers, adding Spam in 1937. By the 1980s, Hormel began offering a wider range of packaged and refrigerated foods.
Did Hormel Foods buy Skippy?
In 2011, Hormel Foods announced a two-for-one stock split. In 2013, Hormel Foods purchased Skippy —the best-selling brand of peanut butter in China and the second-best-selling brand in the world—from Unilever for $700 million; the sale included Skippy’s American and Chinese factories.
Does Hormel make salsa?
“Hormel Joins Forces With Mexican Salsa Maker”. Chicago Tribune. Chicago Tribune. Archived from the original on September 29, 2015. Retrieved September 28, 2015. ^ a b “Hormel Prospers by Getting Into Processed Food Lines : Keyword: Its profit has tripled since 1980, as it has reduced its emphasis on fresh meat products”. Los Angeles Times.
What is Hormel Vital Cuisine?
In 2015, the Hormel Health Labs division of Hormel Foods launched its Hormel Vital Cuisine line of packaged ready to eat meals, nutrition shakes and whey protein powders geared towards cancer patients and made available for home delivery.