That Bacon You're Cooking Might Not Be American Owned: A Chinese Company Owns This Pork Brand Giant

There are numerous food producers in the US that are subsidiaries of big food conglomerates. Many of these seemingly independent labels are actually subsidiaries of larger, sometimes multinational corporations. One example is pork producer Smithfield Foods, a well-known US company whose bacon is near the top of our list ranking the best store-bought bacon, which actually operates under the umbrella of a Chinese company with an international presence.

Smithfield Foods began as Smithfield Packing Company in 1936. The company grew while creating unique pork products, including the Charles Henry Gray Party Ham. As the company expanded, it acquired numerous brands: significantly, Carroll's Foods in 1999 (the second largest pork producer in the U.S. at the time), and Murphy Farms in 2000, which allowed Smithfield Foods to become the largest pork producer in the world, according to the company website. 

Shuanghui International Holdings Limited acquired Smithfield Foods in 2013, becoming a leading enterprise and changing its name to WH Group Limited a year after the purchase. WH Group Limited, headquartered in Hong Kong and operating in China, Europe, and the U.S., is now the largest pork producer in the world, overseeing an operation encompassing every aspect of the pork industry, from growth and production to packing and distribution.

According to Financier Worldwide, when the deal began to take shape in 2012, Smithfield Foods' CEO, C. Larry Pope, regarded the acquisition as beneficial to the Smithfield company, noting this demonstrated that it was "the world's leading and most trusted vertically integrated pork processor and hog producer." He added that this transaction was essentially an export deal that would open up Chinese markets to Smithfield's products, and that the existing management and employees would remain at the company.

There are a number of popular food brands owned by Chinese companies you might not be aware of, such as Fillipo Berio and Capri-Sun. As such, the WH Group Limited website lists a number of food producers that the company holds, and some of them are well-known brands. Fox News reported the 2026 acquisition of Nathan's Famous by Smithfield Inc., which had already obtained a licensing agreement in 2014, but has now fully acquired Nathan's Famous. Nathan's Famous is a hot dog brand we considered a solid classic in our ranking of the best hot dog brands to buy at the grocery store, reminiscent of Coney Island adventures. Another byproduct of the Smithfield acquisition is that WH Group also holds previous and newly acquired Smithfield brands: Farmland, Farmer John, Patrick Cudahy, Armour Meats, and Eckrich are now all subsidiaries of the world's largest pork producer.