This one’s for bacon-lovers!

I know many of my readers – and many on my blogroll – enjoy bacon, either on its own, or as an addition to other meats. However, I’m not sure they realize just how many and varied are the uses for a pig. The Daily Mail explains.

When we tuck into a bacon sandwich, few of us wonder what has happened to the other parts of the pig whose life has been sacrificed so we can enjoy a juicy breakfast.

But one inquisitive writer set out to trace where all the body parts of one porker ended up.

Christein Meindertsma, 29, said: ‘Like most people, I had little idea of what happens to a pig after it leaves the abattoir so I decided to try to find out. I approached a pig farmer friend who agreed let me follow one of his animals.’

Identified by its yellow ear tag number, 05049, her pig trail ended with her identifying an incredible 185 different uses to which it was put – from the manufacture of sweets and shampoo, to bread, body lotion, beer and bullets.

Christein said: ‘I was shocked when I began to find out just how unusual and varied the different uses for a ordinary pig were. It’s almost as if these days, a pig is no longer thought of an animal – more like an industrial raw material with a mind-blowing amount of different uses.’

A bra made of bacon. Those skewers worry me!

She found that 4.9lbs of her 16st 3lb pig went to making wine gums, while 4.8lbs went into liquorice. In this process, collagen is taken from the pig and is then converted into gelatine. This finds its way into numerous foodstuffs, where it acts as a gelling agent.

. . .

It is not only sweets that contain pork gelatine. In some beers, wines and fruit juices, pig gelatine is used to remove the cloudiness from the drink. It works as a clarifying agent by reacting with the tannins in the liquid and absorbing the cloudiness.

Some ice creams, whipped creams, yoghurts and certain butters also contain gelatine, as do certain pet foods. More surprisingly, a number of medicines also contain pig gelatine – everything from painkillers to multivitamins.

Hygiene and beauty products are also made of pig. Fatty acids extracted from the bone fat of pigs are used in shampoos and conditioners to give them their shiny, pearl-like appearance. These acids can also be found in a number of body lotions, foundations and anti-wrinkle creams. Glycerine made from pork fat is also an ingredient in many types of toothpaste.

. . .

Some of the surprising products that can include pig material include photographic film, which uses collagen from pig bones; shoes that use bone glue from pigs to improve the quality of the leather; and certain paints that use bone fat to enhance their glossy properties.

A bacon briefcase

Some makers of cigarettes use haemoglobin from pig’s blood in their filters. Apparently this element works as a sort of ‘artificial lung’ in the cigarette so, they claim, ‘harmful reactions take place before the chemicals reach the user’.

And the next time you buy a loaf of bread you would be well advised to read the packaging. Some manufacturers use an ingredient called L-cysteine, which is a protein made from pig or other animal hair and which is used to soften the dough. A product like Tesco’s Plain Tortilla Wraps includes this ingredient.

The strangest use for a pig by-product that Christein found was in bullets and explosives. Pig bone gelatine was used to help transport the gunpowder or cordite into the bullet.

There’s more at the link, including a splendid diagram showing where each bit of the pig is applied.

Hmm. If pig by-products are used to make bullets and explosives, can I blame my next attack of Montezuma’s Revenge on the bacon I had for breakfast – or, rather, its explosive after-effects?

Peter