Diners Bring On the Bacon : Fast-Food Menus and Pork Belly Prices Show Increasing Popularity

Babe, the Oscar-contending pig, is going to cringe, but when it comes to fast-food restaurant menus, bacon is sizzling.

Whether adorning a Western Bacon Cheeseburger at Carl’s Jr. or gracing the hefty Frisco Burger at Russell’s Famous Hamburgers, bacon is becoming the topping of choice in the hotly competitive industry.

When Taco Bell Corp. wanted to rev up sales late last year, the Irvine-based company stuffed its burritos and tacos with bacon. And when McDonald’s Corp. today unveils a new burger that’s aimed at older customers, the fast-food leader will include a bacon topping.

There’s a simple reason that’s driving consumers to pig out on bacon.

“We’re not talking rocket science,” said Dennis Lombardi, with Technomic Inc., a Chicago-based restaurant industry consulting firm. “It’s got great flavor from the fat and the salt and it enhances a lot of flavor profiles.”

“It sure tastes good, doesn’t it?” observed Carl N. Karcher, founder and chairman emeritus of the Anaheim-based Carl’s Jr. chain, which served its first bacon cheeseburger more than five years ago. “There’s just something about the combination of bacon and beef.”

Bacon isn’t particularly popular with younger children, but its fatty texture and salty flavor play well to the taste buds of teens and adults who buy most of the country’s fast food.

Bacon’s distinctive taste does particularly well with the aging boomers--Lombardi dubs them “boomers with bifocals”--who still account for a hefty percentage of fast-food purchases.

While older consumers love bacon for its taste, fast-food executives are attracted by its bottom line.

“It’s a reasonably inexpensive way to make a line of burgers stand out, and it’s a good way to help increase the average check,” said Michael Rhodes, president of Orange-based Frontier Restaurants, which operates the Knowlwood and Russell’s Famous Hamburgers chains.

Frontier’s restaurants already offer burgers that are topped with thick slices of bacon that chefs grill daily. But this week, Russell’s also is introducing a chicken club sandwich topped with bacon.

CKE Restaurants responded to the growing demand by recently introducing its Big Bacon Star--giving it three burgers topped with bacon.

Some industry observers suggest that strips of bacon are being used to restore flavor lost as chains increase grill temperatures to ensure that burgers are fully cooked. But burger chain executives maintain that they’re simply responding to consumer demand.

Whatever the reason, bacon’s surging popularity has pork producers smiling.

Demand from fast-food restaurant chains has dramatically increased the value of pork bellies, the fatty part of a hog that’s used to produce slabs of bacon. “Just a few years ago, pork bellies were considered to be a drag on the market,” said Charles Harness, spokesman for the Des Moines, Iowa-based National Pork Producers Council.

Wholesale bacon prices, which had been sliding since the 1970s, hit bottom in 1991, said Glenn Grimes, a retired University of Missouri agricultural economist who tracks livestock prices.

The pork industry responded to slack consumer demand by trying to breed pigs with leaner bellies. But at about the same time, Grimes said, fast-food chains began using bacon as a topping for burgers, burritos, salads, French fries and sandwiches.

As the trend spread throughout the country, wholesale prices for pork bellies soared. In the past year alone, Grimes said, demand for pork bellies pushed the average price of a hog up by $8.70 to $125.

Burgers aren’t the only menu items being spiced up with bacon. Restaurants report strong demand for bacon toppings that can be added to French fries, baked potatoes and salads.

Even Taco Bell has even found a way to blend bacon into its Mexican-style fast food. The BLT soft taco and a bacon cheeseburger burrito “have proved to be widely popular,” Taco Bell spokeswoman Amy Sherwood said. “Our core customers love the rich, indulgent taste of bacon.”

Restaurant industry observers say that consumers aren’t paying attention to fat and calories when they order a burger or taco topped with a strip of bacon.

“It’s not something that’s particularly healthful,” Lombardi said. “But then again, the American consumer doesn’t order by being heart-healthful. They order for taste.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Pigging Out

Bacon’s increasing popularity on fast-food menus has contributed to an 80% surge in the price of pork bellies. Monthly average pork belly prices per hundred pounds:

1995

Jan.: $36.03

Feb.: $35.80

March: $36.30

April: $33.83

May: $31.70

June: $37.94

July: $43.10

Aug.: $52.42

Sept.: $54.43

Oct.: $56.20

Nov.: $47.28

Dec.: $51.45

1996

Jan.: $52.33

Feb.: $56.33

March: $64.50

Market Shares

Sections of the pig that supply various cuts, and the percentage of the carcass that is used:

Ham: 24%

Cuts: Cured and fresh ham

Loin: 18%

Cuts: Back and country-style ribs, boneless loin, sirloin roast, tenderloin

Side: 19%

Cuts: Cured bacon, spare ribs

Boston butt: 8%

Cuts: Blade roast and steaks

Picnic: 9%Cuts: Boneless picnic meat

Note: Remainder of the carcass is skin, bones, fat and the like

Lean Cuisine

Hog farmers are producing pork lower in fat than in the past. How pork compares with other meats, fat grams per three-ounce serving, cooked and trimmed:

Boneless pork loin roast: 6.1

Pork tenderloin, roasted: 4.1

Skinless chicken breast, roasted: 3.0

Skinless chicken thigh, roasted: 9.3

Beef tenderloin, broiled: 8.5

Light tuna, in oil: 10.2

Sources: U.S. Department of Agriculture; Researched by JANICE L. JONES / Los Angeles Times