Frequently Asked Questions

D’Orsogna’s 100% Natural ham and bacon range use various natural flavours derived from a blend of fruit and vegetable extracts, including celery and cherries.

The vegetable extract used is a proprietary blend that includes a celery powder used to preserve the product naturally. We do not use garlic nor onion powder. The fruit ingredient is also a proprietary blend that includes cherry extract.

As we use a celery extract to create the product, we cannot claim it is 100% Nitrate and Nitrite-free. Vegetables naturally contain Nitrates (NO3-); these are then converted to Nitrites (NO2-) in the product. Nitrates don’t do much, but Nitrites are reactive and form other compounds that preserve the product colour and taste and deter microbial growth. The same process happens in the body when we eat vegetables.

All 100% Natural lines are currently stocked in Woolworths nationally. If it is not available in your store, we recommend giving another local Woolworths store a call. 100% Natural Bacon is also stocked in selected IGA stores in WA.

The 100% Natural range does NOT use any artificial flavourings or additives such as MSG or Maltodextrin.

Depending on local pork availability, D’Orsogna purchases meat from Australian Government approved countries limited to Western Europe, Canada, and the USA. Domestic suppliers are located in Western Australia as well as interstate. All of our suppliers must comply with strict Australian health and safety standards regulated by various government authorities and third-party auditors. For more details, please visit here. 

Our pork is not halal sourced.

Our chicken is not halal sourced.

Our beef suppliers are halal certified, but we cannot 100% guarantee that the process they follow would be halal.

We do not add any gluten-containing ingredients into our streaky bacon range.

To make a gluten-free statement on a product package, the manufacturer must send the product for laboratory testing to confirm gluten’s presence or absence. These claims were initially applied to products that have traditionally contained gluten but have been made without it, thus the need for testing and verification.

Many companies that produce products that do not or should not typically contain gluten will include a gluten-free statement on the label due to the rising popularity of gluten-free products. This has led to some confusion in the market. When a product makes a statement about its gluten content, the other products in this category are now in question despite never containing gluten.

To clarify, any product sold in Australia that contains gluten or a gluten-containing ingredient is legally required to state its presence in the allergen declaration on the product packaging.

Typically, this represents a minimum guarantee of Australian content inside the product, including meat and dry ingredients. We use either domestic or imported meat depending on meat availability, the stated X% reflecting a worst-case scenario.

Our added ingredients (salt, sugar, etc.) are always Australian; however, the meat can be either domestic or imported due to availability. The low % is to account for this substitution.

Our ingredients contain a combination of local (e.g. Sugar, Salt) and some imported ingredients.

All of D’Orsogna’s Australian pork is sourced from approved piggeries regulated by the Australian Government. The same applies to European, Canadian and American piggeries that we purchase from. The animal feed they use must also abide by strict state and federal health and safety standards. D’Orsogna itself doesn’t grow pigs.

The sugar used in our products is cane sugar sourced in Australia; it is not certified organic.

Our packaging is currently not recyclable. Although most of our packaging materials are recyclable, the top film has a thin layer of impermeable laminate. This seal is necessary to prevent egress of the modified atmosphere inside our packaging and the ingress of the oxygen-rich environment outside, thus slowing microbial spoilage. This affords us the ability to provide a reasonable shelf life.

D’Orsogna is researching recyclable packaging; however, we have not found a solution that overcomes this permeability issue. It is an important issue, and we continue to search for answers as packaging technology advances.

Recently, D’Orsogna has focused on in-house waste minimisation to lessen our carbon footprint. We recycle cardboard and some plastics on site. We have also reduced the thickness of our packaging to use less plastic.