China bacon backlash may occur after Smithfield Foods was acquired by a Chinese company. Shuanghui International bought the major bacon producer for $4.7 billion.

"This is a major operation to those involved in Smithfield, and for U.S. farmers and ranchers," the President and CEO of Smithfield Foods, Larry Pope, told press.

Shareholders will be paid $34 per share. Officials promised the quality of US pork will not decline, but some are worried about a backlash due to the sale. "The general public may latch on to this and say they are going to boycott, go vegan, or otherwise," Teri Gault, chief executive of TheGroceryGame.com, said. However, she pointed out that people are unlikely to actually do so.

They might not even know where the bacon comes from-after all, "You may or may not even know which are Smithfield brands, since they're also Farmland, they are Armour, and Eckrich, and Carando and they own Gwaltney," pointed out Gary Karp,  the executive vice president at Technomic, a food industry research and consulting firm.

The Smithfield will integrate into the Chinese group but keep the same name.

"We do not anticipate any change in the way how the company operates in the U.S. and around the world," said Pope.

Karp pointed out that when a similar merger happened in 2007 when JBS of Brazil bought the & Company, which created the world's biggest animal protein processor, JBS Swift Group. But then, too, U.S. food regulations stayed in place, so the feared backlash did not occur.