KUCHING: Precious Food Products Sdn Bhd (Precious Food Product) is on a quest to change local mentality that fresh pork products can also be found in the supermarkets now and not just at the daily wet market.
Abattoir manager, Dr Francis Sia a former vet from the state veterinary department stated that in terms of standards, the company’s stringent guidelines ensured that the pork products produced at the facility were safer than anything that could be found in the wet market.
“We are following international guidelines as the products made here are for the export market. All equipment are sterilised after each animal so there’s no cross contamination.
“The practice of blast chilling the meat after cleaning and gutting and keeping them in a chiller also helps prevent the spread of potential diseases as bacteria and viruses will not survive extreme cold,” stated Sia.
The total investments made towards the abattoir was RM30 million with RM20 million for the abattoir and an estimated RM10 million for the chiller systems stated sales manager Lester Chung.
The abattoir was fully automated with the equipment completely online so troubleshooting could be done from the equipment manufacturer’s home country in Germany and at full capacity, the abattoir could process 120 units per hour on two eight hour shifts.
However, as the company was still new, it only processes once a week at roughly 100 per session.
“Despite the capability to process such high numbers, we still keep a very stringent quality control with two government meat inspectors checking every single animal for any diseases or contamination.
“We also monitor the supplier to ensure that it follows government guidelines and require appropriate certification for every supplier we contract,” stated Sia.
Sia further added that due to Sarawak’s high requirements for waste management for livestock, all solid waste from the abattoir was sent for incineration while liquid waste was channelled to a nearby biogas facility to produce electricity.
“The reason for the high standards is because the bulk of the processed products here is meant for export to countries like Singapore. There are certain standards that need to be followed for the product to be export standard and we are also applying such standards to what we cater locally.
“We do bacterial swabs on random meat samples, the equipment as well as the vicinity to doubly ensure the safety of our products as well,” Sia explained.
Despite chilled meats being able to last up to five days in the chiller, the company recalled any product that has been on the shelf for three days to ensure the freshness of the meat, Chung said.
“It is still an ongoing process to change the people’s mentality but we are taking every measure to keep our products fresh and with that I believe that sooner rather than later people will understand that fresh meat can be found elsewhere other than the markets and that you do not have to wake up really early in the morning to get it,” stated Chung.
Read more: http://www.theborneopost.com/2012/11/21/precious-food-production-on-quest-to-change-the-local-mentality-on-fresh-meat/#ixzz2CoAobf16
