Over 40,000 tonnes of bacon were sold by GB retailers in the final 12 weeks of last year, recording a 6% increase on the same period in 2015, according to AHDB Pork.
Based on data published by Kantar Worldpanel, the bacon volume rise was helped by falling prices, a fact which restricted the growth of the category in value terms to 0.6% in the same period.
“This represents a recovery for bacon from the early part of the year, when the category was falling in both value and volume terms,” said AHDB Pork, adding that over the year as a whole bacon volumes were up 0.5%, with prices falling by 7% compared to the previous year, to £5.76kg.
“At the start of 2016, bacon sales were lower than the previous year. The publication of a World Health Organisation report (which suggested an increased relative risk of colon cancer due to high levels of red and processed meat consumption) may have contributed to a worsening consumer perception of bacon.
“However, the AHDB/YouGov Consumer Tracker has since registered a three percentage point decrease in the number of consumers who perceived sausages and bacon as not good for you, between January and October 2016.
“This suggests that concern about these products is subsiding.”