Tinoc meat vendors, wives train on meat processing

TINOC, Ifugao -- Residents in this rural town may soon be producing  their own processed  meat products.

Mylene Cadalig and Jenny Sopasop of the Livestock Sector of the Department of Agriculture Regional Field Office of the Cordillera Administrative Region, assisted by  Municipal Agriculture Office Technicians John Hidalgo and Adeline Tindaan,  recently trained 25  meat vendors and housewives of this town on meat processing  so that they can produce safe, low cost and nutritious processed foods.

Most processed meats which   are in demand in the town come from other regions, hence meat processing is a very feasible training for residents who are interested to venture into it, the trainers said.

If there is an increase or excess in any livestock or swine population, they can process them into meat products and sell them even to other places, thus giving the livestock producers another way to dispose or sell their products at higher prices, they added.

This is called value adding that increase farmers’ income, create jobs and therefore can help alleviate poverty and mitigate hunger. It also increases self-development and self-reliance.

They explained to the trainees that meat is the raw material needed and that  processing which is aimed at extending shelf life  and  prevent spoilage caused by microbial, chemical and physical changes, involves different techniques. Meat processing can be  thru drying, smoking, salting, curing, refrigeration, freezing, canning, freeze-drying and irradiation.

Meat products can be processed  into  sausages, hams, pork tocino, pork nuggets, quick cured ham, bacon, longganiza, embutido, siomai, shanghai lumpia, slated duck eggs and chicken nuggets.

The trainees  were taught about   the correct procedures with corresponding quality control measures leading to the production of quality processed products;  value adding interventions to ensure food safety, quality and high market acceptability of the processed meat;  the non-meat ingredients and their functions;  and  actual process, principles and techniques of meat processing.

The training involved lectures, discussion, open forum and actual demonstration and hands on.  The outputs were cooked for the trainees to evaluate by tasting each processed meat product. (JDP/DBC- PIA CAR, Ifugao)