FNB News - ACT ensures longer shelf life, makes poultry meat safe from contamination

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POULTRY

ACT ensures longer shelf life, makes poultry meat safe from contamination

Wednesday, 19 October, 2016, 08 : 00 AM [IST]

Nandita Vijay, Bengaluru

Air Chill Technology (ACT) in poultry meat processing ensures a longer shelf life and makes it safe from contamination.

“Going by the potential of the Indian market, educating customers about imported technologies, high quality and taste is critical to sustain growth momentum,” said Sanjeev Pant, senior vice-president, Charoen Phokphand (CP) Foods.

The Thailand-based agro-food conglomerate embarked on its Indian foray into poultry feed production, farming operations to food processing and distribution under the farm to fork concept 25 years ago.

“India is a one of the top five priority markets for CP Foods globally. With a growing middle class, the focus is on food safety, convenience and nutrition. In 2012, we unveiled the Five Star Chicken brand, and earlier this year, we launched CP Packaged Foods,” he added.

“ACT is for dressed chicken. Chilled air is used to store the dressed chicken below four degrees Celsius. Chilled water is sprayed at regular intervals to avoid the surface of the dressed chicken from drying. While cooking, the chicken muscles absorb water increasing the yield by 5-8 per cent. This technology utilises a minimum amount of water,” said Pant.

Unlike immersion chillers, ACT enables traceability of the batches. Another advantage of this technology is that the meat has a longer shelf life,” he explained.

“We invested $18 million at our Chittoor plant and have now installed ACT for chilling the dressed chicken instead of screw chilling. It is a first in India,” Pant stated.

“In India, with the help of farm to fork model, CP Foods has an integrated supply chain to ensure the best quality products are available to the consumers. The concept of environmentally-controlled farming ensures consistent temperature allows poultry birds to be uncaged and reared in an open room with minimum human intervention. So the birds live in a stress-free environment,” he said.

The Halal-certified company provides high quality and nutritious food. The company ensures that the feed, water and commercial vaccines given to its chicken does not contain antibiotics. The poultry is raised without any artificial or added hormones and are free from chemical preservatives and hydrogenated oils.

Chicken has high protein and is one of the best lean meat for all age groups. Dual incomes led to a demand for ready-to-cook and eat products. “Plans are afoot to consolidate our presence in south India before we foray into the western states,” he said.