Purchase the product before the "sell-by" or expiration dates.
Follow handling recommendations on product.
Bacon Selection and Storage
Bacon comes from the side of the pig. The meat is cured and usually smoked before you cook it at home. It's the fat in the bacon that provides most of the flavor and allows it to cook up crispy, yet tender. Do not turn up your nose at that fat. A hefty ratio of fat to meat is essential to good bacon, usually one-half to two-thirds fat to meat. Since bacon must be cooked before being consumed, much of the fat is rendered out and can be poured off if need be.
All bacon should be found in the refrigerated case at your grocer's and stored in your refrigerator at home. Be sure to always check the expiration date on the package to be sure you are getting the freshest product. Packaged sliced bacon should be kept in its unopened vacuum-sealed package in the refrigerator. Once opened, keep it tightly wrapped in foil or a zip-top bag. Sealed packages of bacon can be frozen up to one month before the fat begins to go rancid. Bacon can turn rancid even when frozen.
Slab bacon should be tightly wrapped and kept in the refrigerator. The ends may darken and dry out, and should be sliced off and discarded before using. Freezing of slab bacon is not recommended. The salt tends to make the fat turn rancid very quickly when frozen.
Bacon and Health
Consumers these days are in a non-fat mode. As a result, pork is about fifty percent leaner today than it was 30 years ago. A three-ounce portion of lean pork is only about 200 calories. For those on low-cholesterol and/or low-fat diets, there are turkey, chicken and even vegetarian bacon products available.
For those on high protein, low-carbohydrate diets, bacon makes a great snack when fried up crispy. It supplies that crunch that is often missed on these diets, while most of the fat is rendered out. When cooking bacon, do not cook at high temperatures for long periods of time. High heat can turn the nitrite curing agents into nitrosamine. Bacon cooked in the microwave contain fewer nitrosamines. Nitrates are used to not only preserve color but also as a preservative agent to retard rancidity in the fat and kill botulism bacteria. Nitrites have been the subject of controversy as a potential cancer-causing agent in some animal experiments. Results are as yet inconclusive. There are nitrate-free bacon products on the market. Check labels.
Bacon History
Until well into the sixteenth century, bacon or bacoun was a Middle English term used to refer to all pork in general. You are probably familiar with the phrase "bring home the bacon." In the twelfth century, a church in the English town of Dunmow promised a side of bacon to any married man who could swear before the congregation and God that he had not quarreled with his wife for a year and a day. A husband who could bring home the bacon was held in high esteem by the community for his forebearance.
(Source: Peggy Trowbridge Filippone, About.com Guide)
Contacted specialists in the Quality Assurance Department and Consumer Response Department at the following companies:
Fresh Mark, Inc.
Hormel Foods Corporation
Kraft Foods, Inc.
Organic Valley Family of Farms
Sara Lee Corporation
Smithfield Inc.
Tyson Foods, Inc.
Other Sources:
U.S. Department of Agriculture
U.S. Food and Drug Administration
*This is only a partial list of our sources as we have used multiple other resources.