Business groups back DA on purchase of new freezers

MANILA, Philippines - The Pork Producers Federation of the Philippines (PPFP) and the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) plus three other major business organizations commended the Department of Agriculture (DA) for acquiring new freezers that use the brine immersion freezing (BIF) technology.

Officers of the PCCI, Pork Producers Federation of the Philippines (PPFP), Philippine Food Exporters and Processing Organizations (Philfoodex) Philippine Mango Exporters Foundation Inc. (PMEFI) and Philippine Okra Producers and Exporters Association (POPEA) said the BIF freezers would help small farmers and fisherfolk preserve their harvest and catch.

The BIF freezers allow fisherfolk to store their fish in standard Styrofoam boxes for two to three days without using ice and still retain their fresh quality and taste.

With the BIF freezers, farmers and fisherfolk don’t have to pay extra money to buy ice to preserve their catch.

Albert Lim of the newly formed PPFP noted that “the freshness and quality of food items such as meat, fish and non-leafy vegetables will be preserved by first freezing fish or meat items in these BIF freezers using the liquid quick freeze (LQF) method.”

Lim said that LQF-treated goods that are transferred to conventional refrigerators or freezers retain their freshness and quality for as long as one year.

Lim witnessed a demonstration of the BIF technology at the Sentrong Pamilihan in Sariaya, Quezon.

Nabcor is acquiring an initial 98 units of this equipment for distribution among local government units, cooperatives, fisherfolk groups, food processors and other farm-based groups in need of postharvest facilities.

BIF is a take-off from the American and Japanese BIF technology of quick freeze, which was improved upon by a local group that includes Filipino inventor Hernando Decena, to make it reach a temperature of as low as minus 40 degree Celsius.