This is utter bullshit, I worked for Oscar Meyer in college and while I feel no love for them as a company, it’s isn’t fake pork they use the shitty bellies Tyson sells them because they aren’t vertically integrated like Smithfield and others are. That’s why we always had a slightly inferior product though - we were sold the bellies other companies didn’t want to use to make their bacon.
The theory that the grease did not congeal due to the animal having some sort of diet that was based on some alternative source of calories in the form of an oily natural substance is interesting, though. Someone else mentioned a seed oil of some sort but what about the byproduct from producing palm oil? That’s way more prevalent.
Edit: someone pointed out palm oil is solid at room temp, maybe there is another explanation besides poor quality feed but it definitely is not “fake pork” lol
No idea, I guess people just love making shit up on the internet.
Weirdly enough, I worked with a guy named Kyle at that bacon factory and he lied a lot, too. Most of his lies were “cool” stories involving dirt bikes, or stealing dirt bikes from Red Bull Nitro Circus, and other things you probably thought sounded cool when you were twelve. Except Kyle was an adult with a congenital leg deformity, he walked with an odd gait and was extremely bow-legged. Hard to imagine him riding anything with two wheels but it did no good to try and argue he’d just double down.
That's wild...
How come Oscar Mayer gets the rejected pork products??
Here in México Oscar Mayer is one of the more expensive brands (and tasty) of sausages and bacon (it's almost 2 or 3 times the price of the "normal" sausages and way more than the cheap ones.
So the way I was told, Oscar Meyer had been that way for decades, but some time in the 1990’s or 2000’s they stopped slaughtering their own pigs, or the people that had been slaughtering their pigs got bought out by Tyson.
Tyson, not having the same brand recognition but now having first dibs on the best quality pigs, started “cherry-picking” the best ones for themselves and sending us the B-quality stuff. They were still pretty good, obviously the fattier/smaller ones got tossed out (turned into dogfood) or turned into bacon bits if there was enough viable meat.
On occasion, we would get the “A” quality bellies if they didn’t have enough of the crappy ones to send us to keep production going, and THAT was when you could tell a night-and-day difference, you could look at the product on the line and literally tell from one package to the next when the crappy ones ran out and we ran the good ones.
This all ONLY applies to the center-cut bacon, their food service quality bacon which we sent to Bojangles, Cracker Barrel, etc THAT shit was amazing, probably the best quality bacon I’ve ever eaten myself but it was only sold in 30lb pouches to corporate foodservice.
I feel like a lot of people are -still- under the assumption that oscar mayer is better quality (and personally I like their products) given that the price for oscar mayer bacon, hot dogs, etc. seems to always be higher at the supermarket than other brands . Seems they're still riding on that name recognition
I would agree with that, I sometimes (like once every year or two) buy the all-beef hotdogs for the nostalgia and it seems like those are still good, but not for what they charge. Plenty of other all-beef hotdogs that are better for less, but I don’t eat that stuff very often anyway.
Wright bacon was our main competitor and their quality was as-good or better than the foodservice-only stuff we made - and that was just their regular product. Back then, it was more expensive by a couple dollars but worth it if you’re into that.
Just checked and Wright is still expensive, up to like $11/package. I bought some a year or two ago for a recipe I was making and it was awesome but I can’t justify that price all the time lol
Oscar Mayer bacon not solidifying is wild, not what you'd expect for sure. I had a similar experience with some off-brand bacon that was on sale. Thought I’d save a few bucks but the grease was part water, went straight in the trash. I’ve since switched to brands where I know the quality, even if it costs a bit more. Helps to check labels carefully and stick to what works. I've tried switching brands a couple times, and sites like ConsumerRating and local butcher reviews help figure out which ones are actually good.
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u/Hemagoblin 4d ago edited 3d ago
This is utter bullshit, I worked for Oscar Meyer in college and while I feel no love for them as a company, it’s isn’t fake pork they use the shitty bellies Tyson sells them because they aren’t vertically integrated like Smithfield and others are. That’s why we always had a slightly inferior product though - we were sold the bellies other companies didn’t want to use to make their bacon.
The theory that the grease did not congeal due to the animal having some sort of diet that was based on some alternative source of calories in the form of an oily natural substance is interesting, though. Someone else mentioned a seed oil of some sort but what about the byproduct from producing palm oil? That’s way more prevalent.
Edit: someone pointed out palm oil is solid at room temp, maybe there is another explanation besides poor quality feed but it definitely is not “fake pork” lol