PORK RINDS ARTICLES

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Pork Rinds Have Some Dieters in Hog Heaven

Following the low-carb trend, they're loading up on the deep-fried
pigskins, thrilling manufacturers and horrifying nutritionists.

By MARLA DICKERSON, Times Staff Writer

Los Angeles (August 3, 2000) – If pork-rind makers were
assembling a consumer dream team, Sandy Clark would be the last one drafted. Clark is female, white-collar, health-conscious and Jewish. Lousy
demographics for peddling deep-fried pigskin.

But that was before the high-protein, low-carbohydrate diet craze.
Clark, a West Hollywood computer programmer, now munches the zero-
carbohydrate skins instead of potato chips. She tosses them in salads
for a crouton-like crunch and pulverizes them as a coating for fried
chicken. Tale of the tape: Clark has lost 17 pounds in just over two
months while consuming two bags of pork rinds a week with her co-
dieting husband.

Call it the pigskin paradox. Weight watchers have helped catapult
pork rinds, that Southern-fried scourge of the food pyramid, into an
unlikely diet aid and one of America's fastest-growing snack foods.

Boosted by weight-loss gurus such as Dr. Robert Atkins, whose regimen
includes fried pigskin dipped in sour cream, pork-rind sales grew a
sizzling 18% last year. That's triple the growth rate of the snack
industry as a whole.

Long a fixture at truck stops and liquor stores, pork rinds are
turning up in high-end grocery chains, executive lunch boxes and
Internet chat rooms. Epicurean dieters are elevating the blue-collar
snack into full-fledged cuisine, tossing it into recipes from French
toast to meatballs.

Hungry dieters are ecstatic. Nutritionists are horrified. And
jubilant manufacturers are as puffed up as their product. Weary of
insults heaped on a Southern specialty known to some as
the "cracker's cracker," some purveyors are tickled that salted, deep-
fried hog flesh is catching on with the dieting in-crowd.

"I'm not sure you could call this health food," said a grinning
Rudolph Gaytan, inspecting mounds of sizzling skins tumbling fresh
from the fryer at his Industry-based Gaytan Foods. "But we're
thrilled that more people are trying the product."

And how. Pork-rind sales grew faster than any other salty snack-food
category except for jerky last year, topping $420 million, according
to the Washington, D.C.-based Snack Food Assn.

Old stalwarts such as pretzels and potato chips still dominate the
$19-billion munchies market. Still, for a product that barely
registered on the snack-food radar a few years back, pork rinds are
now outselling such niche players as sunflower seeds and are fast
gaining on such popular categories as ready-to-eat popcorn.

Industry watchers credit America's surging ethnic populations for
some of that growth. A favorite with Midwesterners and Southerners,
fried pork skins are known as chicharrones to Mexican Americans and
Filipinos, who often top them with fiery salsa or spicy vinegar
sauce. Inventive cooks also use chicharrones as an inexpensive meat
substitute in main dishes, or sprinkle the ground product over
entrees for flavoring.

"It's the Filipino Parmesan," said Barry Levin, president of Industry-
based Snak King, whose pork-rind sales in the Western United States
have been expanding by 30% a year. Ethnic consumers "are a great
market for us because they already know the product," Levin said.

But with low-carb mania sweeping the nation, even consumers whose
previous exposure to pigskin was limited to footballs and Hush
Puppies are gobbling up the culinary version.

They are people like Steve Beilinson, a dieting Los Angeles banker
who keeps a bag in his office for afternoon snacking, along with
plenty of napkins to keep grease off his tie. And Deana Cheever, an
administrative assistant in Cincinnati whose pork-rind meatloaf is
such a hit that dieters are swapping the recipe on a low-carb Web
site. And Debbie Anderson, a San Diego waitress who has shed 80
pounds on a low-carb diet, aided in part by her newest favorite
comfort food.

"My friends can't believe I'm eating stuff like this and losing
weight," said Anderson, who plows through a "good-sized bag" of Frito-
Lay's Baken-ets brand pork skins every week. "They think I'm cheating
on my diet."

Indeed, eating fat-laden, high-calorie foods such as pork rinds as
part of a weight-loss plan is the antithesis of traditional dieting.
But that was before rebels such as Atkins began shaking things up
with the notion that fat and calories alone are not the culprits.

His plan and similar regimens such as the Zone diet contend that the
energy-catalyst insulin is the key to weight control. By restricting
carbohydrates, and thus the blood sugar that triggers insulin
production, so the theory goes, dieters can force their bodies to
burn fat for fuel instead.

So it's out with carbohydrate-rich pasta, bread and sweets and in
with steak, eggs, butter, bacon and other foods rich in protein and
fat. Nutritionists warn that the diet, if taken to extremes, could be
a recipe for heart disease and kidney damage. But dieters' biggest
concern appears to be monotony, which is where pork rinds come in.

Puffy, gnarled, a few shades lighter than cardboard, pork rinds look
and taste vaguely like a cross between packing peanuts and crisped
bacon. Their real appeal, aficionados say, is the texture. With
crunchy treats like potato chips, crackers and popcorn forbidden on a
low-carb regimen, fried pork skin is one of the few remaining refuges
for dieters seeking a crispy fix.

"It has filled a big hole in my diet," said James Akin, a crunch-
craving weight watcher who works for a Catholic organization in San
Diego. His favorite memory of a recent business trip to the Deep
South: Pork rinds were available in almost every vending
machine. "Now, that was heaven," he said wistfully.

No one knows just how much of the recent rind sales boom can be
attributed to dieters. Still, industry watchers said they haven't
seen this much interest since 1988, when another would-be president
named George Bush courted the Joe Six-Pack vote by declaring his love
for the folksy food.

Today's pork-rind tent is bigger and more upscale than ever. On Los
Angeles' Westside, where restaurants and personal trainers cater to
the low-carb crowd, Brentwood's Vicente Foods supermarket reports
pork-rind sales have jumped more than 20% in recent months, according
to general manager Bob Inadomi.

The nation's largest producer of pork rinds, just elevated low-carb dieters to its list of prime target markets, based on feedback from retailers and consumers. "About 80% of the e-mail we're getting right now is from women," said spokeswoman Dori Coldwell. "And I'd say most of them are on that diet."

Even so, pork-rind purveyors have yet to openly court weight watchers-
-or change their labeling to highlight the product's high-protein,
low-carbohydrate content--for fear of turning off core consumers.

"We make authentic Mexican-style chicharrones," declared pork-rind
maker Gaytan. "When customers buy our product, they want to know
they're getting the real thing . . . not some diet food."

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Talk about a makeover! Within a year, pork rinds were transformed from the rural, blue-collar, perceived-unhealthy pork product to the trendy, urban, hip, good-for-you snack that it became in 2004.

Sure, when your typical, fit-and-trim supermodels start eating pork rinds, as was reported at the height of the low-carb diet craze, the celebrity watchers and health junkies take notice and often follow suit. But, more importantly, pork rind manufacturers hitched their wagons to the low-carb trend, and it no doubt gave them a monumental boost, particularly in terms of introducing them to new consumers.

"People are definitely recognizing that it's not nearly as unhealthy as people might have perceived," he adds. "Actually, as far as a fried snack food, it has a very good nutritional profile."

Ask anyone in the category, and you'll get nothing but glowing remarks about how pork rinds stole the show in '04.

"We've seen a real long-term bump [in pork rinds]," says Joe Papiri, vice president of sales and marketing for Snak King Corp., based in City of Industry, Calif. "The category's still up, and a lot of people got exposed to that product. It was the one low-carb thing that really tasted good."

Tom Dempsey, vice president of sales and marketing for Hanover, Pa.-based Utz Quality Foods, Inc., which does not produce pork rinds but sells them through a co-packing agreement, admits, "Thank God for them in 2004. They really helped sales. ... For us, whatever hit we took in the pretzel category, pork rinds more than made up for it. So if you have to pick one shining star in '04, it's the pork rind category."

But even with the low-carb craze getting less attention lately in the media, pork rinds remain atop their game for the time being, explains Kim Turner, marketing director for Evans Food Products Co., Inc.

"Although people claim that low-carb is declining, the need for healthy alternatives in food, especially with increasing awareness of obesity, has not diminished," says Turner. With this fact in mind, Evans, which is based in Chicago, developed a baked pork rind that has half the fat of original pork rinds but still has none of the carbohydrates, the key factor in pork rinds' rise.

Healthfulness has certainly fueled the rise of the segment, which, according to Rudolph, posted even better growth in the last year than reported by scan-data services. "The thing that you really have to think about with pork rinds is that so much is sold outside the scan-data systems--probably 65-70% is sold in places that don't offer scan data," he says. Furthermore, Rudolph adds, somewhere in the neighborhood of 40-50% of pork rinds are sold in C-stores that don't offer broad-based scan data.

The C-store channel has been a solid base of growth for pork rinds all along, and it showed high growth as well. Rudolph explains that Mexican-Americans are the biggest consumer group for pork rinds on a per-capita basis. The product has remained quite popular within the Cuban, Puerto Rican and Central and South American communities within the United States as well. That bodes very well for the category, given that the Hispanic population within the U.S. is growing at a fast pace.

"We also have a very broad base of rural consumption, particularly in the Southeast," Rudolph says. "It's very popular and almost considered somewhat of a Southern tradition. [We have] rural consumption across the board, plus heavy blue-collar consumption."

Evans has been on an innovation kick of late, launching two new snack lines in the last few months. Rap Snacks, a line geared toward urban youth, features flavors such as Honey Barbecue, Ham & Cheese and Hot Sauce. Also, La Tonita was recently launched as a brand targeting Mexican-American and other Hispanic-American consumers. Not only does it feature flavors such as Chile Limon, but it also offers different sizes of product, including a larger-sized pork skin that is popular with Mexican consumers, Turner says.Even with the focus on the core consumers of pork rinds, Turner says Evans has not abandoned the low-carb dieters who began eating pork rinds during the 18 months.

"The growth of people adopting this plan slowed down, but those who accepted it are still big fans of it," Turner explains. "So for the pork rind industry, this is exciting. We have learned that new news in this category can definitely spur growth, and we now have a whole new consumer base to build off of--low-carb dieters."

Jerry Wilson
Over Coffee
Appearing each Wednesday in the Edinburgh Courier, the weekly newspaper in Edinburgh, Indiana and periodically in Indiana's Daily Journal newspaper.

Dieters Find New Snack Craze

Quick! What snack food has seen its sales grow three times faster than other snacks over the past three years?

If you're thinking potato chips, pretzels, popcorn or those low-fat snack crackers, think again.

Don't squeal in dismay, but the salty snack that is becoming increasingly popular these days is the lowly pork rind.

Pork rinds are made from slices of pig skin, often fried in lard or oil, or puffed up in a microwave oven.

Pork rinds, sometimes called pork skins, bacon curls or chicharrones, have been shunned as a snack food by many health-conscious consumers over the years. They were thought to be a heart attack waiting to happen. After all, what could be unhealthier than thick slices of pig skin cooked in lard?

Well, think again. Many dieters are now rooting for pork rinds as a healthier alternative to the ubiquitous potato chip or corn chip as a way to satisfy their desire for a salty and crunchy snack. In fact, those dieters who are limiting their intake of carbohydrates instead of counting calories are thought to be behind the recent upswing in the sales of pork rinds.

According to The Snack Food Association, sales of pork rinds are up by 18 percent this year, compared to increased sales of about 6 percent for other salty snacks.

And sales are up locally, too. Danny Grider, meat manager at Edinburgh's Jay-C Food Store, said sales of pork rinds have doubled over the past year or so.

When asked if pork rinds are selling better these days, he answered, "Oh my gosh, yes. They go like crazy. We're selling twice as many as we used to."

Allen Burton, a local distributor of pork rinds and cracklings, says his sales have increased substantially this year, too.

"The popularity of the low-carbohydrate diet has helped sales a lot," he said.

In fact, Burton is trying to expand his operation to include selling his products over the Internet. He even places them up for auction on eBay.

Most dietitians, of course, scoff at the idea of eating pork rinds to lose weight. They point out that a half-ounce serving of pork rinds, about one cup, contains 5 grams of fat, 9 grams of protein and 80 calories. That certainly is true, but a single serving of potato chips has 8 grams of fat, 11 grams of carbohydrates, 2 grams of protein and 140 calories.

Regardless of the reasons behind the increasing popularity of pork rinds, the fact remains that more people than ever are pigging out on the snacks. They are now fried fresh and sold at carnivals and fairs.

On the day of the Fall Festival Parade in Edinburgh last month, there were two vendors frying pork rinds on the spot and selling them to hungry parade watchers.

Despite the warnings of intransigent dietitians, pork rinds have proven themselves to the public. People have found that their cholesterol levels do not skyrocket, that their blood pressure does not go up and that their hearts are not clogging with fat as a result of eating pork rinds -just the opposite, in fact.

Although some people do not like the taste of pork rinds, or the thought of eating them, statistics continue to show that the public is warming up big time to this once-maligned snack food.

Move over, popcorn.

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Suddenly, Pork Rinds Are Classy Crunch

By JENNIFER STOFFEL

RENDERED from smoked, fried hog skin, pork rinds have suffered a dismal image over the years, never quite garnering the following of other, arguably more respectable junk foods, like pretzels or potato chips.

But with President Bush's stated fondness for the rinds, the status of the snack has risen considerably. Since the Presidential campaign, when it became widely known that Mr. Bush liked pork rinds, sales have been booming, and here, in rural northwest Ohio, employees at the Rudolph Foods Company have had to work overtime to keep up with demand.

''At first when this thing hit, during the campaign, I thought it would go away, that it was a fad,'' said John E. Rudolph, the 64-year-old founder and president of the company, the nation's largest pork rind producer. ''But it has gone off the scale.''

In recognition of this town's successful enterprise, Gov. Richard F. Celeste of Ohio recently named Westminster, population 300, the ''Pork Rind Capital of the World.''

Fresh hides from 175,000 hogs arrive here each week from Iowa, Nebraska and other states to be frozen, chopped, then cooked dry, then smoked over hardwood in a process developed by Mr. Rudolph's wife, Mary. A second cooking in its own fat reduces the hides' fat content, rendering flat, greasy, squares that smell and look like bacon. When the pieces are plunged into a vat of 400-degree hog fat, it takes merely a minute for trapped moisture to turn to steam and ''pop'' the flat pellets into crispy, flavorful pork rinds.

To insure consistency, a 14-member quality-assurance team takes turns testing for texture, color, bite, oil and crunch.

The idea that the skin of the hog could be served as a special treat is an old one. Mr. Rudolph believes the snack originated two centuries ago in Mexico, after the introduction of pork by the Spaniards.

The Mexican variety, the chicharron, is still popular. It is typically flavored with lime and chili powder or added to scrambled eggs. With hot sauce, chicarrones are also served as a meal.

Another early version of the pork rind, cracklings, is a crisp byproduct of rendering pork fat for its lard and has long been popular in the southern states as an ingredient in eggs and cornbread.

Still, with all his recent success, Mr. Rudolph is defensive when asked about the nutritional value and healthiness of a pork-rind habit. Responding earlier this year to what he called ''bad nutrition press,'' which called into question the snack's fat and salt content, he asked Nutrition Network, an independent food-research concern in Laguna Beach, Calif., to study the nutritional content.

It found that a half-ounce serving (about a handful) of rinds has 80 calories, 9 grams of protein and 5 grams of fat. That is more protein and less fat than in a half-ounce of shelled peanuts. Rinds are not loaded with cholesterol, coming in at less than 20 milligrams a half-ounce, as against 200 milligrams in an egg.

''If you had a real heart problem you wouldn't want to eat a batch of them,'' Mr. Rudolph said. ''But we could call them low-cholesterol if we wanted to.''

Still, while Charlene Rainey, president of Nutrition Network, maintains that pork rinds can fit into a balanced diet, she advises moderation. ''We wouldn't suggest to anyone to eat large quantities of meat,'' she said. ''We would never suggest to somebody to eat two ounces of pork rinds, that's not sensible.''

When Mr. Rudolph first began making pork rinds in 1955, it was merely in addition to his main venture, making pepitas, Mexican-style fried pumpkin seeds. In the 30 years since, the sales of pork rinds have grown to account for 95 percent of the company's earnings. This year, he said, the company sales are expected to top $25 million, rising about 20 percent over 1988.

Having found receptive customers in much of the South, the Middle West, and Mexico, Central and South America and Australia, Mr. Rudolph has set his sites on expanding into Europe and Asia. This year, he began shipping to Scandanavia, and a joint venture is in the works in Western Europe. Besides selling pork rinds under the their own label, the company also markets them under the Pepi's and Grandpa John's labels, and supplies rinds for other companies, including Frito-Lay.

Aside from the plain, salted variety, the company also prepares hot and spicy pork rinds, rinds with jalepeno and a touch of lemon-lime, a barbecue-flavored rind and rinds packaged with a bag of hot sauce for dunking - a popular method of eating the snack. And as of February, the company began selling a new brand, the President's Favorite, bedecked in a red, white and blue label.

''It's not glamorous,'' Mr. Rudolph said. ''We can't make them glamorous. We just want to sell the living daylights out of them.'' Twists, Chilled and War, on a Snack Peruvian-Style Pork Rind Dip (Adapted from Mary Rudolph) Preparation time: 30 minutes 2 cups cottage cheese 2 hard-boiled egg yolks 1/4 cup mayonnaise 1 or 2 tablespoons ground hot peppers or Tabasco sauce 2 tablespoons finely chopped onion Salt and pepper to taste A few drops lemon juice.

1. Mash cottage cheese and egg yolks with pastry blender.

2. Add mayonnaise and mix well.

3. Add peppers, onion, salt, pepper or Tabasco sauce and lemon juice. Beat well.

4. Serve chilled with pork rinds as an appetizer.

Yield: 2 1/2 to 3 cups. Crackling Bread (Adapted from ''The Complete Book of Breads,'' Bernard Clayton, Jr., Simon & Schuster, 1973) Preparation time: 25 minutes Cooking time: 30 minutes 1/4 cup all-purpose flour 1 1/2 cups cornmeal, white or yellow 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1/4 teaspoon salt 1 cup sour milk or buttermilk 1 cup cracklings (crumbled) 1 egg, room temperature.

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

2. In a bowl combine flour, cornmeal, baking soda, salt, sour milk or buttermilk. Stir in the cracklings and the egg. Blend thoroughly.

3. Pour batter into a medium-size baking pan, (8 1/2 by 4 1/2 inches) greased if not using nonstick pan. With a rubber spatula, smooth the surface.

4. Bake 30 minutes, until it is well-browned. (Reduce oven by 25 degrees if using a glass pan.)

Yield: 8 to 10 servings.

NOTE: Crackling bread is best when eaten warm. It can be frozen successfully but should be reheated in a 300-degree oven for 15 minutes before serving.