Bacon supply safe despite plummeting pork reserves, council says

Sound the alarms: The pork used to make bacon is at the lowest level since Dwight D. Eisenhower was president.

Posted 2:27 p.m. Feb 1, 2017 — Updated 5:45 p.m. Feb 1, 2017

The pork used to make bacon is at the lowest level since Dwight D. Eisenhower was president, but there's no reason to panic.

A report from the United States Department of Agriculture said the supply of frozen pork belly, from which bacon is cut, is at its lowest level since Dec. 1957, according to the Ohio Pork Council. The total pork inventory dropped 41 million pounds last month alone.

The Jan. 24 USDA report said the frozen pork belly stock was down 4 percent from Nov. 2016 and 67 percent from the same time in 2015.

The record high was set in 1988 when there were more then 113 million pounds of pork belly in cold storage. This month, though, the record low was set at less than 18 million pounds.

According to NBC News, there is no bacon shortage on the horizon: The nation's pork farmers are doing their best to meet the heightened demand, said Rich Deaton, President of the Ohio Pork Council.

"Rest assured. The pork industry will not run out of supply. Ohio farmers will continue to work hard to ensure consumers receive the products they crave," Deaton said.

Suggest A Correction