If they hadn't thrown the one with a hole in it in the trash (depending upon the size of the hole) it would have been okay to eat. We have a grocery store up the street from here that sells meat like that all the time. I was asking the meat guy a few weeks ago what the difference between two different bacon's were and he thought I mean the look of the package. He went on to state that the package that shows the darker color meat somehow managed to get a hole in it and air got inside which caused it to lose color and it's air vacuumed packed look. He said there's nothing wrong with it they just mark them down because people think there is something wrong with it. I can attest that I didn't die eating it as I ended up buying both packages....the other was a naturally cured, which was the original intent of my question to him. Naturally cured he stated is when they use celery salt to cure bacon. I asked if it made it taste any different and he said he's tried it and you couldn't tell a difference, he was right as I bought that one also and there wasn't any difference, maybe just slightly less salty.