Hanoi (VNA) – TheMinistry of Science and Technology (MoST) has issued national standards onchilled meat and technical requirements to meet expectations of markets at homeand abroad.

The information was revealed by Nguyen Nhu Tiep, Director of Ministry ofAgriculture and Rural Development (MARD)’s National Agro-Forestry FisheriesQuality Assurance Department at a press conference in Hanoi on October 17.

He said Vietnam is a country consuming a huge volume of pork. Sometimes, thequality of pork in some localities has not reached appropriate standards onfood hygiene and safety.

The country has food hygiene and safety standards for meat, but those standardsare not suitable to meet demands in domestic and foreign markets, he added.

To meet those requirements, the MARD and the MoST have cooperated in compilingnew standards for chilled meat of Vietnam.

The Vietnamese standards require that pigs must have a clear origin and becertified by the veterinary inspection agency.

They include requirements for raw materials and technical requirements at eachstage of production, storage and distribution to ensure the quality of thechilled meat. The standard set stipulates labeling to distinguish between freshmeat and chilled meat.

Those standards will help improve transparency in management and also provide alegal framework for companies producing and trading this product. It willcreate favourable conditions for Vietnamese consumers to use a delicious andhealthy food product.

This standard set will help Vietnamese meat enter export markets.
In the Vietnamese market, there is mainly fresh meat, which is put on themarket right after slaughtering without cold storage. The fresh pork does notrequired large investment in storage and is preferred by local consumers eventhough it is the type of meat most likely to be sold without preservation andfrom an unknown source.

The MARD estimates that up to 90 percent of pork sold on the domestic market iswarm pork.

In contrast to warm pork, frozen meat is frozen at minus 18 degreesCelsius and preserved for a long time before sale. However, this kind of foodrequires consumers to have knowledge to use, especially of the right defrostingtechnique to ensure quality.

According to international standards, chilled meat is meat preserved bychilling to and maintaining at no more than 45°F (7°C) immediately afterslaughter. Quick chilling has many advantages and maintenance of low humidityis favoured to prevent mold growth.

The processes of production, preservation and trading for chilled meat are verypopular and have been standardised in the world.

This kind of meat is a product that is consumed in large markets in the worldsuch as the EU and the US. In the future, chilled meat is also the developmenttrend of the slaughtering and meat processing industries as well as of newproducts developed in Vietnam, he said.

According to the MARD, pork production in 2016 reached a record level of 3.36million tonnes, up 5 percent against 2015 and ranking seventh in the worldafter China, the US, Germany, Spain, Brazil and Russia.

However, pork meat is mainly used for domestic consumption while the exportvolume is very small.-VNA