-By Meg Major

With intensifying demand for fast, flavorful, economical meals, grocers have great opportunities to keep meal occasions in the home by offering compelling solutions that address key consumer needs. That's the thinking that's driving trends in the smoked and refrigerated meats category, whose leading suppliers are delivering solutions that address consumers' primary meal solution needs and culinary desires.

Take bacon, for example, which in some circles is regarded as the single most crave-worthy of all proteins — smoked or otherwise. Anecdotal observations suggest that vegetarians are most susceptible to falling off the meatless wagon with bacon more than any other meat in their path, though burgers run a close second.

To be sure, bacon's been the center of attention in food circles in recent years and has permeated American culture, with blogs, fan clubs and inventive new foods devoted to all things bacon (baconnaise, bacon mints, or even bacon vodka and bacon martinis, anyone?). The sizzling slices — whose most die-hard fans are known to sport T-shirts that proclaim, "Everything tastes better with bacon" and "I liked bacon before it was cool" — have prompted some gourmands to declare bacon the new black.

In recent years, the savory fare has also sizzled beyond the borders of breakfast and emerged as a key ingredient for haute confections and desserts like chocolate, cupcakes, ice cream, and puddings, as the salty yang to the sweet yin of sugar-based classics. Indeed, Time magazine picked up on the seemingly obscure trend earlier this year, while an episode of the Food Network's "The Best Thing I Ever Ate" featured foodies' favorite bacon desserts. And, of course, it goes without saying that home cooks are following the bacon-sweet lead as well, spurred on by magazines and a recent crop of cookbooks featuring recipes such as maple-bacon milkshakes and sweet-potato bacon fritters.

Bacon recently got another jolt of acclaim when BBQAddicts.com introduced "Bacon Explosion," a concoction of sausage topped with bits of bacon, barbecue seasoning and barbecue sauce, and then wrapped in a delicious basket woven from bacon and slow-smoked to perfection.

"Thanks to a groundswell of support from bacon lovers, the bacon craze that caught on in recent years continues to sizzle," says Cathy Lee Fredrickson, online editorial manager for the Des Moines, Iowa-based National Pork Board. The Pork Checkoff was only too happy to support the celebration earlier this fall by promoting bacon recipes, tips on cooking bacon and more in commemoration of International Bacon Day on Sept. 5.

This year marked the second anniversary of the commemorative occasion created by the Bacon Boys, a blogging duo from Colorado, and which has since been transferred to the auspices of the Royal Bacon Society, the presider over a bacon bash in early September in its hometown of Santa Barbara, Calif.

Bacon's rejuvenated popularity is being driven in large part by its status as an ingredient, which Fredrickson says accounts for nearly one-third of all bacon consumption. What's more, she adds, studies show that more than half of all households (53 percent) report that they always have bacon on hand in the kitchen. As a culinary mainstay, bacon can take different forms, including the Canadian variation, which is leaner and lower in calories than its full-bodied forerunner.

"People are really starting to realize that bacon is no longer just a breakfast staple," adds James Villas, author of "The Bacon Cookbook," who has teamed up with the Pork Checkoff at TheOtherWhiteMeat.com to share his secrets of bacon perfection and help consumers get the most "bang" for their bacon buck all year round. "Bacon is without a doubt one of the most versatile and flavorful options in the grocery aisle."

To whet the appetites of bacon enthusiasts, the Pork Board is offering bacon recipes for breakfast, lunch and dinner, courtesy of TheOtherWhiteMeat.com and Villas' "The Bacon Cookbook." "International Bacon Day is such a fun, pop culture event, and it has struck a chord with a lot of consumers and the media," says Fredrickson, who notes that the Pork Checkoff has created a special Facebook social networking page for bacon fans while tweeting "bacon fun" on Twitter to promote pork to a wider audience online.

While bacon rules the roost as the most menued breakfast meat in the United States, a growing base of health-conscious, allergy-sensitive and dietary-restricted consumers is turning to uncured meats, as well as additive-free products such as Farmland Foods' hormone-, nitrate-, nitrite- and antibiotic-free all-natural, hickory-smoked bacon.

In Search of Dietary Solutions

While more consumers are choosing to avoid certain foods, gluten-intolerant celiacs —  approximately one out of every 133 Americans are diagnosed with the disease, according to the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness — are seeking out practical adjustments to help them control the inherited autoimmune disease. At the same time, food manufacturers are working to provide more solutions to better meet these dietary needs.

Understanding that adherence to a gluten-free diet can prove challenging, Austin, Minn.-based Hormel Foods has created a gluten-free section on its newly redesigned Natural Choice brand's Web site, dedicated to providing meal solutions, information and resources to help those afflicted with celiac disease. Featuring recipes that use only gluten-free ingredients, the section offers easy, family-friendly choices for breakfast, lunch and dinner, along with easily accessible recipes, healthy-living tips, gluten-free-living guides, and educational materials through streamlined searching capabilities. Comparable data for reviewing ingredients and additional product information are also included, as are suggested gluten-free shopping ingredients, basic terminology surrounding gluten, tools to properly read food labels and suggested gluten-free resources.

Jason Baskin, associate product manager for Hormel's Natural Choice line, says, "Through recipes and tips for balanced living, we show consumers how they can feed themselves and their families natural, wholesome food and feel good about it."

Hammin' it Up

Smithfield's Lincoln, Neb.-based Cook's Ham division is also turning to the Internet to better connect with today's consumers via a sleekly updated Web site that blends a whimsical, nostalgic look and feel with an informative, resourceful array of options to capture the wholesome essence and homespun message of the classic ham brand.

"The new content was added to provide consumers with more information, not only about Cook's products and recipes, but cooking instructions as well," says director of marketing Jon Lewallen, noting that seasonal content was also developed to showcase the use of Cook's products during grilling season, back-to-school, holiday, Super Bowl and Easter. "A series of 'how-to' Web videos were also created to help inform consumers on ham and help visualize things like carving a semi-boneless ham and proper ham thawing instructions. Functionality was also added to the recipe hub that allows consumers to search for a recipe by product, course or cooking method, and see the recipe image before actually visiting the recipe's page." A product locator further directs consumers to local supermarkets that carry Cook's ham, notes Lewallen.

Taking elements from TV creative and print executions, Cook's carries over the brand's essence and messaging to the design of the new Web site. "Incorporating the Cook's TV creative and print taglines, like 'When the world discovers ham on the grill, hamburgers will wish they were actually made of ham,' into the Web site allowed the creative to sync across multiple mediums. The updated design also allowed us to showcase and feature our quality product images, not only in package, but plated recipe shots as well."

Since the Web site launched in October 2008, Lewallen says CooksHam.com pages have been viewed over 1 million times by over 220,000 consumers. "We recently compared how the new Web site was performing during a nonseasonal time frame, with analytics from May 2008 vs. May 2009," he continues, the results of which provided ample reinforcement that the potentially "forgotten meat" — to use one of the company's clever tongue-in-cheek taglines — is anything but: visits saw a 103 percent increase, while page views rose 120 percent; unique visitors, 273 percent; and recipe page views, 646 percent.

Downers Grove, Ill.-based Sara Lee has also long played a leading role in the refrigerated meats category with its portfolio of top-selling brands such as its eponymous deli line, as well as Ball Park, Jimmy Dean, Bryan and Hillshire Farm, the last of which recently launched a family-size lunchmeat tub that provides enough meat for up to eight sandwiches. Available in a resealable container, the five-flavor line extension kicked off with a promotion offering consumers a free insulated red lunch tote with the purchase of three 8-ounce or larger packages of lunchmeats.

With brown-bagging on the rise, the larger tub offers consumers "great value in these harsh economic times," notes Hillshire's VP of lunch and dinner brands, Tim Roush, adding that the Red Bag program symbolizes "[that] Hillshire Farm and fresh taste and quality are one and the same, [and] we have the bag to prove it."

Sara Lee's use of a larger tub  is the latest in a steady stream of refrigerated meat products that rely heavily on reclosable/resealable/reusable containers not only to maintain product integrity, but also to play up their visual appeal in the case. The past decade has ushered in a series of perforated, press-to-close and zip-to-close packaging applications that offer easy access, convenient storage and environmentally friendly attributes as well.

Duncan, S.C.-based Sealed Air Corp./Cryovac Division’s Multi-Seal package, which can be easily and reliably opened and resealed many times over the life of the product, is one recent example of packaging innovation for sliced meats and cheeses. The package employs less material because it doesn't require a zipper or tear-notch feature.

The refrigerated dinner meats category continues to make inroads with a growing base of cooking-adverse consumers who desire both home-style meals and on-trend flavors. To that end, Tyson Foods, Inc. has expanded its fully cooked heat-and-eat dinner meats line to include 11 varieties. Earlier this fall, the Springdale, Ark.-based company tapped The Food Network's Robin Miller, chef and host of "Quick Fix Meals with Robin Miller," for a consumer campaign to depict how the product line can help put a comforting, seasonal dish on the table in minutes.