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The reason I ask this is due to the fact nothing on the bacon packaging indicates it can or cannot be eaten 'raw' and in general eating raw meat is a bad idea.

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    I find the same problem with cucumbers. The store label does not state if I can eat them raw or should I cook them first. Moreover, no one knows how to cook them.
    – Yevgeniy Afanasyev
    Commented Mar 8, 2018 at 22:54

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In such a case, for any food item, ask yourself a question: In a 19th century household, would it have been kept in the cellar, or eaten immediately?

For bacon, it is common knowledge (or at least I think everybody knows it) that it was kept in a cellar for long time. So this is definitely not a food which perishes too quickly. You can eat it raw. (In fact, I often do when I need a quick sandwich). It can be a bit tough to tear apart with your teeth, so pre-cut it.

The reason for this is that bacon is cured meat. There are two reasons not to eat raw meat: taste and food safety. Taste is individual, some people are OK with the taste and eat raw meat as long as they can find a source of meat fresh enough (think sashimi, carpaccio, steak tartare). Food safety is not a problem with bacon. The process of turning pork to bacon includes salt and smoke. Both of these kill bacteria, create an environment which is not hospitable to new colonization (dry, salty), and give the meat a new flavor which is better than the raw meat.

If you are now asking yourself why we are bothering with the fridge for bacon and other ex-"cellar foods" at all, there is still a reason. First, most of us don't have a convenient cellar at 12° - 15°C, and not only is the bacon's life shortened if kept at usual kitchen temperatures, it also doesn't taste too good. It is just greasy. Second, you seldom get dry bacon at the supermarket; even if the curing process doesn't include brining, bacon is often aged much less than in old times, and then packed in vacuum, so it doesn't get really dry on the outside. So bacteria could very well start growing on it outside of the freezer. Inside the freezer, it keeps much longer than raw meat, and is certainly OK for consumption without frying. I guess that the popularity of fried bacon is mainly due to taste reasons.

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    It's safe to eat raw bacon? And to think, I've wasted so much time cooking it!
    – bsneeze
    Commented Apr 12, 2011 at 0:15
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    Raw meat is supposedly significantly less digestible than cooked, one of the primary reasons for cooking food in general in the first place.
    – Orbling
    Commented Apr 12, 2011 at 6:12
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    I can't remember what we used to do back then.. it was just so long ago.
    – intuited
    Commented Apr 12, 2011 at 7:24
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    I was under the impression that the bacon I buy from the grocery store and the aged, cured bacon people stuck in their cellars back in the day are totally different beasts.
    – Preston
    Commented Dec 21, 2014 at 0:34
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    Note, however, that Trichinella, the parasite most people are concerned about in bacon, is not a bacteria. It's apparently not as prevalent as it once was. Consider this website: healthyeating.sfgate.com/happen-eat-undercooked-bacon-3110.html Also, just because they did something in the 19th century doesn't really make it safe.
    – Erhannis
    Commented Jan 14, 2015 at 23:48
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I might disagree a little with rumtscho - traditionally cured bacon is one thing, what you get in packets from the supermarket is another. It looks similar and it tastes similar, but commercial products are processed rapidly and not tested for immediate consumption without cooking.

Products like Parma ham and Schwartzwaldschinken are proven to be adequately preserved for consumption without cooking. Modern bacon is not, in general. OTOH I know for a fact that raw packet bacon is commonly eaten in Spain without cooking, and I've met people who eat raw sausages (not a good idea in my opinion).

Me, I wouldn't eat it uncooked ...

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    I agree that modern bacon isn't the same as the properly cured homemade one. But I happen to have a package of bacon in the fridge, and it lists "Pork, salt, nitrites, conservants, smoke". As everything besides the pork on this list has antibacterial properties, I consider eating it from the package safe, even though it has not been put through a traditional drying process like parma/schwarzwald. When stored in the fridge, it is just much closer in safety to them than to raw meat. The final judgement should be left to the eater, as it is his health which is at stake.
    – rumtscho ♦
    Commented Apr 11, 2011 at 23:46
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    This also depends on the bacon. Benton's Bacon for instance is shipped unrefrigerated with a note that it's perfectly safe to keep at room temperature because it is properly cured and vacuum packed.
    – yossarian
    Commented Apr 12, 2011 at 16:01
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    There are also two major types of sausage: fresh and preserved (i.e., cured, dried, and/or smoked). The former (e.g., breakfast sausage) are basically raw ground meat. The latter (e.g., salami) are generally safe to eat without further cooking. You know people that eat fresh sausage‽
    – ESultanik
    Commented Apr 12, 2011 at 20:29
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    I get nervous about anything containing nitrite - it is potentially carcinogenic.
    – Charlotte Farley
    Commented Apr 17, 2011 at 2:34
  • @CharlotteFarley Cooked meat is also potentially carcinogenic, so it's a bit of a tossup.
    – JAB
    Commented Sep 5, 2017 at 16:50
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I agree with both rumtscho and James Barrie on some points. First off, modern bacon that is "smoked" just might ONLY have smoke ADDED as a flavoring and not "be" smoked, OR not smoked for as long a period of time. While adding salt and chemical preservatives will enhance the shelf life it will not inherently kill ALL bacteria (see below for more detail/effects).

One other difference from "modern" and "historical" pork products, including bacon but also extended to other products is the method of the production. Modern pork is typically raised on clean(er) food sources and you don't see "toss the household garbage into the pig pen" or pigs roaming the streets picking up food (at least typically). These "older" feed sources might still exist in some areas, even in modern pork. I point this out because certain parasites can and DO exist in modern pork, but are MUCH reduced compared to prior. That being said, unless you KNOW the source, you cannot be sure, and there still exists that possibility of those parasites which heat will kill. This is one of the reasons why pork is cooked more thoroughly than other meats such as those from cattle, sheep, goats or other grazers which tend to NOT eat those items.

Historically cured meats (bacon, ham etc) also reduced the moisture contents of those meats - thus the smoking process desiccated those parasites, and reduced the bacterial "friendliness" of the product - along with the salt, sugar, smoke which were/are added during processing. Note that smoking in a traditional manner (smokehouse) will also slightly raise the temperature of the product as well for a period of time longer than most cooking, but not as MUCH as cooking - and longer than a process which would simply be used to impart flavor.

One other note - smoking (not adding smoke flavoring, the actual process) will also tend to dry out/seal the outer layer making it less "available" for penetration of contaminants such as bacteria, which along with the increased salt in the outer layers also helps.

If you purchase a product, and it is refrigerated, be prepared to cook it. If it is not refrigerated, it might be "safe" to eat but not as tender as cooked.

Bottom line (for me at least) is I never eat meat raw unless I personally prepared it including actually raising the animal MYSELF and processing it.

As for the cooking process, as others have noted, in meats, cooking will also break down the connective tissues making it more palatable and easier to chew.

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According to the USDA FSIS, unless the label says otherwise, pork bacon is considered to be raw. If yoiu go to a few manufacturers web sites, like Oscar Meyer or Bar-S Brand, You will see that they offer products that are labeled "fully cooked." So, if it does not say "fully cooked," it is not.

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  • Additionally, some manufacturers say that the bacon is "smoke flavored" as is found on the Bar-S website.
    – Mark Newsom
    Commented Jul 24, 2012 at 15:59
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Trichinella only infects about 8 people a year in the U.S., and almost all cases are from people eating under cooked wild boar.

Farm raised pork in the U.S. is virtually trichinella free, which is why the FDA has lowered the temperature from pork cooking recommendation from 160 degrees to 145, or medium, with a three-minute rest.

Pork no longer needs to be over cooked like before, although the bacon question still attracts my attention.

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Having eaten cooked bacon and gotten food poisoning so severe "I saw dead people", I would not be in a rush to eat raw bacon. However as Mark Schultheiss suggests, it probably has more to do with production and storage than anything else.

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I've eaten a good amount of "raw" bacon and never gotten sick. I just make sure it says smoked and/or cured on the label and only eat from a freshly opened pack. Also you might feel sick eating it if there's too much of the fat, so try to find some bacon with a good meat-to-fat ratio : )

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    Uuhh this makes no sense. The fat is the most delicious part, without that it would just be salty pork muscle. Fat does not make people sick; I just ate a half pound of raw bacon and asked the butcher for the fattest whitest slices.
    – J. Win.
    Commented Oct 23, 2011 at 16:01
  • Yes, Fat does not make people sick
    – Yevgeniy Afanasyev
    Commented Mar 8, 2018 at 22:56
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Just eat it it's fine! If it was raw it would look like raw pork, you know, like a pork chop before you fry it. Bacon is good to go either fried or how it comes from the butcher. To say bacon is 'raw' before it's fried is misusing the word raw.

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Despite the smoking, and curing process, raw bacon is still quite dangerous to consume. Trichinella, a type of worm larvae, can infect raw pork. Although commercial manufacturers smoke and cure bacon before selling it, smoking and curing don't always kill Trichinella, but the added salt and nitrites in bacon do make it less perishable than other types of raw meat, according to the United States Department of Agriculture Food Safety and Inspection Service. Salt slows bacterial growth by directly inhibiting growth or by reducing the water content; bacteria need water to breed, and reducing the content tends to make the meat last longer, but as long as there is moisture present, there is the ability to develop Trichinella.

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    Do you have evidence or citations that the factors you cite apply to modern cured bacon? Curing is historically a method for preserving meats; the question is whether the modern methods remain good enough to have that affect, not what bacteria need to grow.
    – SAJ14SAJ
    Commented Nov 15, 2013 at 19:42
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I use to visit my uncles meat locker in Minnesota as a child and we would get the bacon out of the smoker and bring it right to the slicer. We would eat it straight off the slicer by what seemed like by the pound. I was probably 9-12 years old and had not built up to much of an immune system by that age. I never felt or got sick. As a matter of fact ,it was what I remember to be one of the best tasting things I had ever eaten up till then. I would venture to say its much safer than the dozens of raw oysters I eat now in Florida every year.

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    The fact that you survived a behavior doesn't mean the behavior was necessarily not risky. A dangerous dog may not always bite.
    – SAJ14SAJ
    Commented Sep 11, 2013 at 18:07
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I have always eaten my bacon raw and I have never gotten sick from eating it that way. Personally, I like the taste way better when it's raw compared to when it is cooked. Tastes less salty and more like bacon in my opinion :D But yeah I guess it's entirely up to you as to whether or not you want to give it a go... I've had it that way since I was 6 or 7, never had any problems at all.

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