A packet of Rashers and Irish Food Quality Certification

I was in Tesco last week and needed to pick up some bacon. I was planning on making some split pea and bacon soup - a Delia Smith recipe that my wife and I love. I have made this before with a chunk of smoked bacon chopped up small and it was delicious. I thought a packet of rashers would do in a pinch.

There was a huge selection of rashers in the chilled cabinet. They all however seemed to be essentially the same. There are a number of flavours, but who wants flavours in their rashers? Food companies perhaps. This avoids having to produce tasty bacon. There were no free range ones, no organic. Just streaky or back and the bunch of flavours. I bought a packet of Denny back rashers.

When I opened the packet I could see how thin they were. As I separated them they tore. I had to scrape them apart with my fingers. They were covered in some sort of sticky goo. Probably the added flavours. The first few I cooked under the grill smelled of fish oil (presumably what the pigs had been fed). As they cooked a white foam oozed out of them. They were flavourless except for the strong 'smoke' that had been added. I fried the last few and they were just as bad.

I have made the mistake of buying Denny products before. Probably because of the amount they spend on advertising. It strikes me as sad that in a country that is supposedly so reliant on agriculture food producers are intent on making bottom of the barrel muck like these rashers. This is of course an Irish Quality Assurance Scheme product. Here is a link to the producer rules for this scheme.

I live in a major suburb. We subsidise this industry to a vast extent and they don't seem to produce anything worth eating. How are Bord Bia supposed to sell this junk in foreign markets? I can imagine the Germans or the French laughing at us. Food in Ireland is frequently viewed as a producers right to sell and the consumer can take what they are given.

I think the Quality Assurance Scheme is a base level which all farms should achieve. This should not be an opt in and should be removed from packaging as a marketing tool.

Secondly a new scheme needs to be introduced aimed at the quality of the end product. Professional grading panels could be used to determine what products are of the highest quality. A set of grading levels - 1, 2, 3 etc. could be used to show which products were the best. What type of feed had been used could be indicated on the package along with the lack of additives and housing conditions for animals. These products could command a premium price. This move away from commodity production should improve margins for everyone in the supply chain. The consumer will also benefit from real choices in the quality of what they buy.

I would certainly pay a lot more for bacon that taste like bacon. I won't buy Denny products again though.