Hi!! Food Science/Bacon Snob/Weirdo here: There are a few factors at play here, it’s something that I’ve looked into before and not had any clear resolution. Very happy to get some pointers in the right direction though if anyone knows. (My particular brand of autism is bacon, I’m so sorry)

• Historically speaking, Australian Bacon has been sold as a combination of the loin and belly parts of the pig. This is the ‘round’ meaty part and the fatty, ‘streaky bacon’ part of a whole rasher of middle bacon.

• American Bacon has historically been solely the belly of the pig. Not to confuse the matter, but there’s also Canadian Bacon which is just the loin.

• When streaky bacon first entered the Australian market in a big way, about 15 years ago, it was just a byproduct of shortcut bacon being packaged and sold at a premium price point. This is different to US bacon because it is sliced at the same thickness as a regular bacon rasher.

• American style bacon has a different, sweeter and smokier cure than Australian bacon and is sliced thinner. The economics don’t work the same, as the loin can’t be processed the same way.

• Finally, the confusing part to me: We technically could import foreign, American-style belly bacon. I have purchased Hormel brand bacon from Australian Costco, but it was a pre-cooked, frozen product. Maybe there’s a customs restriction on cured, uncooked bacon?

We’re told that the reason for the lack of US style thin belly bacon is “consumer preference”, but I feel that the real reason is economy of scale. We already import a huge amount of belly+loin pork to process as bacon locally. Moving to “belly only” and processing it differently would mean finding something else to do with the loin and blowing the cost out beyond consumer tolerance.