Consumers are increasingly choosing new and specialist bacon cures which produce a much higher quality product, leaving the mass commodity market to be dominated by imports.

In this, bacon is following a similar path to sausages which saw a renaissance moving from being a midweek staple to a dinner party dish as a plethora of new high quality recipes were developed.

Up-market butty.

Much of this was highlighted during British Bacon Education Week when a specialised website was set up giving information on different bacon cures and showing how excellent results could be achieved in sandwiches, snacks and recipes.

The latest figures show top quality bacon had been in decline by about five per cent but in the last year that has turned into a 16 per cent growth. BPEX Consumer Marketing Manager Chris Lamb said: "At the moment Danish is running a major bacon campaign.

"We know this will, in the short term, give all bacon sales a boost which is good news for British producers."Bacon has always been a firm favourite but the growth in the market is coming from people looking for high quality, specialist bacon cures."