North Country Smokehouse's Applewood Smoked bacon is getting a name change to Fruitwood Smoked bacon. 

Fruitwood Smoked bacon launched as better-for-you food trends began to emerge and shoppers started opting for all-natural, preservative-free meats. The company named their new certified humane offering Fruitwood Smoked Bacon to differentiate it from the traditional recipe. 

"We wanted to make it easy for people in search of natural and humanely raised bacon to find what they were looking for. The name made it easier to identify when customers called looking for clean-label products." says Aaron Corbett, North Country Smokehouse CEO. "With growing trends towards sustainability and our commitment to humanely raised and organic farming practices, there's less of a disparity because humanely raised and organic products are the bulk of our business."

What does this mean to the company's Fruitwood Smoked bacon fans? Probably not much since nothing changes but the name.

"We are not changing the recipe," says Mike Kelly, vice president of national sales and business development. "The packaging is identical so the shoppers who are faithfully adding the product to their cart each week, won't even notice. New to brand shoppers might be more willing to give it a try because they're familiar with the applewood smoke flavor profile," Kelly concludes.

North Country smokes all of its bacon over authentic Applewood embers, which is, essentially, a Fruitwood—so the change makes sense. The name change will take effect beginning this fall.

Source: North Country Smokehouse