Dorsogna 100% Natural Bacon Review
This bacon product is fairly new to the market and caused a bit of interest on my social media amongst you all! I promised I would do you a review and tell you my thoughts and here it is.
First up, this review is not sponsored or endorsed by Dorsogna in any way. I actually emailed them to ask questions about the product months ago and I haven’t heard back!
Why is natural bacon of interest??
Well, it’s a long and complicated story! There still exists some debate about bacon and nitrates/nitrites but I found this article at Weston A Price to be quite good at explaining it all.
Personally, I try to eat full fat food with minimal processing and avoid synthetic additives.
The Product
This bacon is readily available in most of the big supermarkets with the 400g pack retailing for around $10.
Dorsogna make a number of claims on their bacon including:
100% natural ingredients
No artificial preservatives
No added nitrites
No artificial flavours
No artificial colours
Gluten free
No synthetic ingredients
97% fat free
Minimally processed
Of course, we all know that to truly assess a product, we should always read the ingredient list rather than relying on marketing claims, right!?
So, the ingredient list:
Pork (90%), water, salt, potato starch, cane sugar, vegetable extract, vegetable fibre, fruit extract, natural flavourings, naturally wood smoked.
I really wanted to know what exactly the vegetable and fruit extract and the natural flavourings are but as I didn’t get a reply from the company, it’s anyone’s guess!
So, the ingredient list doesn’t sound too bad, right? It’s definitely an improvement on some bacon you can buy from the supermarket. If you are specifically avoiding synthetic nitrates/nitrites you might be happy to buy it and not investigate further.
The Pork
So, my other questions to Dorsogna were, where is the meat sourced from? is the meat free range? what do the pigs eat? how is it processed? what chemicals are used in the processing? are there chemicals used in the packaging?
The package states that the meat is ‘made in Australia from local and imported ingredients.’
Having a friend that is a pig farmer has really opened my eyes to all of these concerns! I want to eat pork that is treated humanely, allowed to roam on pasture, reared and processed in Australia, that has eaten a nutritious, natural diet and is processed and packaged without added chemicals.
I will make an assumption here that the pork is not free range or exclusively from Australia. My conclusion is based on the fact that these claims are not on the packaging. As these are desirable attributes to a consumer, you would have to conclude that if it was free range, Aussie meat, they would be shouting it from the rooftops.
The Taste
Okay, so now we get to another important aspect – the taste!!!
Our family loves bacon….. like really loves it. But not this bacon. Everyone in the family hated it!
It’s really salty and tastes to me like Spam. The kids have no idea what Spam tastes like but they also said it was too salty and had a fake taste.
The texture is really mushy and has a strange, soft mouthfeel (again rather Spam like).
When cooking the bacon, I could not get it to crisp up at all, it just seems to stay the same colour and stick to the pan. You can see in the photo how it broke down into pieces after cooking. That happened every single time I cooked it.
So, when I compare this to the natural bacon I usually buy, it’s really, really different, both in taste and texture.
Final Verdict
I like the fact that the bacon is gluten-free and appears to have no added synthetic additives. It’s also easy to source and not too expensive.
Would I buy it again? Nope.
Aside from the fact that we didn’t like the taste and texture, I really don’t like supporting an industry where animals are treated inhumanely. Free range, high welfare meat is really important to our family.
I don’t mind paying extra for better quality.
Other Options
If you would prefer to eat natural, Aussie bacon with minimal processing the best advice I can give you is to see what you can source locally. Check out your farmers’ markets or your organic butcher and ask questions.
There are some amazing farmers out there producing beautiful pork products. Once you taste this type of bacon, trust me, you will love bacon even more.
I would love to know what you think! Have you tried it?
The only way to know what is in your bacon is to make it yourself. It is so easy to do. I source free range meat, cure with salt, honey (my bees) garlic (home grown) and black pepper. I smoke it in the webber with apple wood chips from pruning my apple trees. Slice it and portion it up and into the freezer – no nasties
Hi Jo! Yes if you can source good pork, this is a great option. I know lots of people that do it. 🙂
Thank you very much Sonia for doing this review. Trying to cut down on bacon, but have been buying this occasionally. The fact they didn’t respond to you a) rings alarm bells, and b) is rude and shows they do not value you their customers and are hiding behind shallow claims.
Jo, so much admiration for you. I’m going to send this to my husband, and see if he is interested in making our own bacon 😉
Hi Miranda. It would have been nice to hear from them. Either way, it’s good customer relations to answer queries.
I tried it too NNAM and it all fell apart when cooked! Yuck!
Yeah it’s not very stable is it?
Totally agree with your review! Our family tried this too & hated it. You can tell it has been majorly processed & is not an actual slice of real bacon. It tastes strange & cooks up weird as well. Almost like it has a gummy residue on it. Certainly didn’t crisp up at all. I didn’t notice that it was a mix of Australian & imported pork, I usually avoid this.
We are very lucky where we live as have access to a farmers market & a local butcher who makes nitrate free bacon.
Yes it feels like it’s been put back together in the shape of a bacon slice!
We switched to this bacon to get a readily available nitrate free version. All of my family (2 adults, kids 9 and 7) really enjoyed it. We got it to crisp up in the pan.
I’m not impressed they haven’t responded to your question though.
Hi Bec, Interesting! I have a few people who said they liked it. I’m wondering now if the product changes seasonally? No idea.
I tried it, never again, it is horrible.
Yeah we thought so.
Hi Sonia, I’ve tried it too, and my experience was the same as your review. I didn’t think it was real bacon either, processed to look like a bacon rasher. I’d prefer to go baconless than buy it again. Thankfully our local butcher sources nitrate free bacon, that tastes amazing. Dian
Hey lovely! It wasn’t as good as Lucy’s bacon! x
Have you reviewed the ham? I’d be interested to hear your thoughts. I haven’t tried the bacon – I cook the ham instead. We like the ham, and it is seemingly a better choice than other deli style ham. I also get nitrate free ham from my butcher, but the kids aren’t keen on it.
Hi Beenadette, I haven’t tried the ham! I still think I keep coming back to free range pork though. I wish they would consider swapping!
We as a family eat this product on a weekly basis & quite enjoy it. My kids like it super crispy so I cook it in my sandwich press. It cooks on both sides at the same time & takes less than 2 minutes. It has never fallen apart or broken up when cooked.
Hey Nicole, thanks for the heads up!
Yes, same experience for us.
I love this bacon, I cook it under the grill and it crisps up so nicely.
I do wonder if the vegetable juice used is celery juice, which i have read actually has more natural nitrates than the synthetic stuff. I’m thinking I will have to start making smoking my own. will have to get a webber bbq for that.
Like you I have been trying to find out if it’s Australian pork ,even the managers of the supermarkets don’t know where it’s sourced from they’re marked as 18-20% Australian content so I’m asking what is and where does the other 80% come from . I’ve so far contacted Primo brand and I’m about to contact this firm , I’m sick to death of the underhand way that overseas content is in our food .It should be marked WHERE IT COMES FROM !
Hi Pat! So frustrating isn’t it. I wrote this article back in 2016 and I am STILL waiting on a response. Let me know if you hear anything! 🙂
What is wrong with you people dorsogna is the best bacon , its because you been eating shit bacon for so long ya don’t know good bacon anymore
LOL You must work for Dorsogna Bob? Try some organic, free-range bacon that has been naturally cured and then get back to me about which bacon tastes the best! 🙂
I have eaten and enjoyed real bacon most of my life. It wasn’t until recently when shopping in Aldies when picking up a pack of your bacon and curiously looking where abouts in Australia it came from.
To say I was shocked and disgusted is an understatement and placed the product back on the shelf.
A small rectangle with the made in Australia logo and wording, made in Australia with less than 10% Australian ingredients. Really.
Most Australian people are led to believe, according to the media advertising that this small green triangle, the made in Australia logo , believe the product is a home grown product from Australia.
The use of this logo on products like this and others, is misleading .
I am disgusted In our government for allowing the made in Australia logo green triangle on food products like these and many others ,when we have it locally grown .
Hi Phillip. I wholeheartedly agree with you. However you have not reached the Dorsogna website – this is a private blog where I have reviewed the bacon (and found it lacking). If you wish to lodge a complaint with Dorsogna, you will have to find their actual website. Cheers