The bacon boom was not an accident

These days, it seems like bacon is in everything from corn dogs to waffles to vodka. Consumers' collective love for all things bacon-infused has generated more than $4 billion in annual sales in the past decade, according to Bloomberg Businessweek.
 
That's quite a turnaround for a meat product that had fallen off Americans' plates in the 1980s and 1990s. What had historically been considered a breakfast-only food became Public Food Enemy No. 1 when fats and nitrates were linked to health concerns from obesity to cancer and bacon sales plummeted by 40 percent.
 
The National Pork Board's successful "Pork: The Other White Meat" campaign jumpstarted sales of leaner cuts of pork but left warehouses full of unsold pork bellies. Facing backlash from pork suppliers, NBP marketers rebranded bacon as a "flavor enhancer" to restaurants. Burger chains were the first to add bacon to menu offerings, consumers' responded enthusiastically to the indulgence of bacon when eating out and the country went whole hog for a food trend created more by marketers than foodies.

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