New Filipino-Made Bacon Crisps Set to Conquer the Global Snack Market

If you're into healthy snacking and veganism, this isn't for you. But if you believe it's okay to indulge every once in a while, your blood pressure and cholesterol levels are in check, and you love bacon, you have to try these new Filipino-made bacon crisps. These chips are made from 100 percent real bacon. They're not dehydrated or fried, but baked—hence the name Baken. The chips, which come in attractive resealable packs, are super crisp, tasty, and versatile.

Why did I say versatile? Besides the fact that you can eat them straight from the bag with your favorite drinks, alcoholic or not, you can also enjoy them with rice or bread. No cooking required.

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And as Chef Chele Gonzalez and his team have shown at Baken's popup café during the International Food Exhibition (IFEX) Philippines 2024, these chips could evolve into luxurious drinks, bite-sized appetizers, desserts, and garnishes. At the event, his team presented an assortment of canapés such as Bacon & Eggs, Bacon Bomb, Holy Baken! and PB&B paired with a rum-based drink called Bacon in a Glass.

Meanwhile, Filipino chocolate brand Theo & Philo infused their chocolates with Baken chips, adding savory notes to their already delightful creations. These were offered by Baken as unique giveaways to their guests.

Food and beverage exporters got to sample Baken at the this year's IFEX event. 

Vision for Baken

The lady behind this brand is marketing consultant and self-confessed bacon lover Rachel Carrasco. She came across a bacon café-slash-deli in Cape Town, South Africa, which served everything bacon, and that sparked the idea. "They sold all sorts of bacon products there like bacon mayo, bacon ketchup," she tells this writer. "I walked in there and thought, 'Maybe we could do it.'"

One thing she noticed, though, was that the items sold in the café needed to be consumed right away and couldn't last more than three months. "So, I thought, nobody has done ready-to-eat bacon in a bag yet—crispy, like fresh out of the kitchen. And then I thought, oh, why don't we do it?"

Carrasco, whose background is in brand building and who was also into wines and spirits, said Baken has been five years in the making. "I would say, Baken is the culmination of everything that I've ever done in my career," she says. "We spent three years on R&D. In the fourth year, we tested it in the e-commerce space to gauge consumer interest. Last year, our fifth year, we began commercializing it. Now, we're fully entering the market and expanding its reach."

These chips are made from 100 percent real bacon. They're not dehydrated or fried, but baked—hence the name Baken. 

Already available in the market are jerky, pork rinds, and meat sticks. So what makes Baken special and original in the meat snacking category, says Carrasco, is that it's "100 percent crispy, ready-to-eat bacon in a bag—with no artificial substitutes." She claims it's "the world's first all-bacon snack brand."

She also takes pride in their signature process of making the crisps. "We create our own smoked bacon with our own brine. The key to getting it crispy is maintaining a standard fat-to-meat ratio and using a precise baking temperature. We opted to bake the bacon to extract the oil and fat," she offers.

Carrasco says their bacon crisps are primarily made from Canadian, French, and Spanish pork. Occasionally, they use Philippine pork, but she emphasizes that the meat must adhere to the required fat-to-meat ratio standards.

Baken, a proudly Philippine made product, has been recognized at the Center for International Trade Expositions and Missions (CITEM)'s 2024 Katha Awards, highlighting the company’s commitment to innovation, quality, and creative excellence.

Currently, Baken's main products consist of the Original Real Bacon Crisps (P660), Bacon Cookies (P405), and Bacon Jam (P515). These are available locally at Candid Coffee, One World Deli, Landers, and Terry Selection. It can also be purchased in Australia, Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Singapore via their website. Carrasco says their goal is to achieve worldwide distribution.