B acon has more possibilities than just fried rashers. Richard Cullen, MLC national accounts manager, trade marketing, says: "The opportunities for bacon are there in ready meals. "There is a lot we can develop for bacon and pork. "Ready meals grew by £103m last year and we can't afford bacon missing its share of that growth. It's already a value-added product, but there's still room to add more." In the 52 weeks to August 20, sales of ready meals with bacon in them were worth £20.9m, a year on year rise of 37%. Given the total ready meal retail market value of more than £800m, bacon's share of the market is small. But volumes ­ 11,500 tonnes over the same period ­ have grown by more than 33%. Cullen is trying to get the British Meat Quality Bacon Mark into ready meals and foodservice menus. He is sensitive to the consumer concerns raised by the MLC's campaign to promote the mark. "We want people to understand the welfare standards behind the mark. It is a tricky message to get across, but more people are starting to look at where their bacon comes from." There are three key findings in MLC research on what consumers expect from a quality mark: feed; freedom to move and independent assessments. "People understand what meat and bonemeal is, so when we tell them that it is not fed to British pigs, they get the message. "The freedom to move expectations reflect consumers' concern that animals have been well looked after. And the independent assessments mean that they're not just taking our word for it. Someone else is checking up on the scheme, too." {{FOCUS SPECIALS }}

Topics