Producers of very fine British cured meats, chorizo & sausages
Our Good Food Charter
Lets hear it for Britain!
OK, so Great Britain doesn’t have the greatest reputation across the world for fine cuisine, but no one can deny that in recent years we are giving it a go. Celebrity Chefs have enthused millions of wanna-be cooks to start creating gastronomic wonders in their own kitchens to the delight of their friends and families. The archaic beliefs that women cook and men work have become as old fashioned as cured meat (which I believe are making a comeback!).
One thing that the UK does have going for it is its diverse assortment of cultures and flavours that now make up the modern British culinary landscape. From Asian influence to the traditions of European market food, it’s this rich mix of edifying cuisine that gives us optimism for the future of the British food Industry and has lead to the inception of The Bath Pig Company.
Along with many a food producer in the UK, The Bath Pig Company are borrowing some of the best bites from across Europe. By tweaking traditional recipes and becoming familiar with age-old curing processes, The Bath Pig Company are now able to deliver a range of cured and semi cured pork products that deliver quality to surpass many an imported, carbon-footprint hungry sausage! So why eat an imported Chorizo when you can enjoy a British-cured one, which not only helps to support the British Pig Farming Industry but also reduces carbon impact and tastes amazing?
Why Support British Pig Farmers?
Pork has always been a major player in the British diet, traditional products such as sausages, ham, pies, gammon, Scotch eggs and pork pies are as popular now as they have ever been, and now cured meat such as Chorizo and Salami products from Europe are now gaining entry on to the British shopping list.
However, did you know that less than 20% of bacon sold in the UK is British? This not only damages the British Farming Industry, means an increased Carbon Footprint for each pack of bacon but it also means the UK supermarkets are profiting from the reduction in costs from imported European meat.
Saddest of all is that European welfare standards for pig production fall well below those of UK producers. Sows are often kept in extremely confined ‘Sow stalls’ for most of their breeding life. This allows the producers to get more piglets from each Sow, with some delivering up to 40 piglets a year. This increased efficiency in turn means a lower cost for pork can be achieved; this cheap European meat has already forced many British pig farmers out of business. It’s not only cruel to the pig; it’s a financial disaster for our farming industry.
Farmers in this country are rapidly going out of business and in the last 10 years the UK breeding herd has halved. Staggeringly, nearly 70% of pork products sold in Britain contain pork that has been farmed in a way that is illegal here.
RSPCA Freedom Foods Pork
We insist that all of our pork comes from farms approved by Freedom Food to strict RSPCA welfare standards. At The Bath Pig Company we belive that pigs should be looked after properly and we support all farmers in the UK who care for their animals too.
Outdoor reared and Free Range Piggy’s
As well as the lovely happy free-range pigs reared by Clive Suggs on his farm near Bath (featured on our website) The Bath Pig Company will always insist on using outdoor reared and when possible free-range piggy’s to make our delicious sausages.
We understand that there are no standard definitions of these terms. Generally an outdoor reared pig will have the freedom to roam around a yard or outdoor enclosure but may sleep indoors; a free-range pig is allowed to roam more freely in a field and therefore able to root around in the earth as pigs would do in the wild. The Bath Pig Company will continue to strive to ensure that we use ‘pigs that get to move around freely in their pens and are reared on farms that have been audited and certified by the RSPCA Freedom Foods.
We will do everything we can to ensure our pork ticks all the highest standards of welfare and that our pigs are treated to a free-range life style. We strongly believe that all animals have a right to a high standard of living and let’s face it, happy pigs mean tasty pork.
Prudence the Pig
Not only do we insist that all of our pork is British, RSPCA monitored and free range, we also produce a pork product that offers real economic value. The traditional cured sausage recipes that we use are born out of this need for prudence, they utilise all main cuts from a pig*, including the shoulder, belly and back fat that are not always sold in supermarkets. We also use natural British hog and beef casings for the skins of our sausages. The Bath Pig Company urge you to buy British pork and to look out for these logos when you are buying pork products to ensure your meat is to the highest British Pork Industry standards.
