The Department of Agriculture (DA) is setting up multifunctional freezers across the country in keeping with government efforts to provide farmers and fisherfolk with easy access to state-of-the-art postharvest facilities that will considerably shave their production plus marketing expenses and thereby boost their incomes.

A project of the DA’s National Agribusiness Corp., the government is acquiring this year 98 multi-functional ice-making machines using a relatively new brine immersion freezing (BIF) technology that will allow fisherfolk, for example, to store their fish in standard Styrofoam boxes for two to three days without using ice and still retain their fresh quality and taste, according to Nabcor spokesperson Kathyrin Pioquinto.

By first freezing fish or meat items in these BIF freezers using the liquid quick freeze (LQF) method, users can then store these commodities in conventional freezers or refrigerators for as long as six months to a year and still retain their quality and taste, Pioquinto added.

Hence, she said, “critics of this project are wrong to cry overprice because they are comparing the purchase cost of these mobile, state-of-the-art freezers with those of conventional or traditional, permanent and single-purpose ice-making machines that are widely used in the country.”

“It’s like comparing apples and oranges,” Pioquinto said in citing the superiority of the state-of-the-art on refrigeration design and one-of-a-kind feature of BIF equipment that Nabcor is acquiring from the winning bidder—the Integrated Refrigeration System and Services Inc. (IRSSI). “They (critics) may have been misinformed about these machines, which utilize the revolutionary BIF and LQF technologies to instantly freeze and preserve the quality and freshness of agricultural produce for as long as six months to a year.”

Unlike conventional ice-making machines, she said “the technology provided by IRSSI can store agricultural produce like fish, meat, leafy vegetables and fruits in Styrofoam boxes for two to three days without ice, with the quality and freshness of these commodities remaining the same as during the day these were caught or harvested and then frozen through the LQF method.”

“If these commodities are placed inside standard refrigerators or freezers after being frozen in BIF freezers, these can last from six months up to one year and still preserve the quality of these goods,” she added.

BIF is actually a take-off from the American and Japanese BIF technology of quick freeze, which was improved upon by a local group, which includes Filipino inventor Hernando B. Decena, to make it to (-40 degree Celcius) a much lower operating temperature, more compact, more-cost effective, user-friendly and a multi-functional piece of equipment.

Decena said BIF is a “revolutionary method” in preserving aquatic products, meat, fruits and vegetables using super-conductive solution as secondary refrigerant, which he had developed.

He explained that “BIF allows instant freezing, which, as a result, eliminates crystallization, thus preserving the freshness, flavor and texture of the frozen product.  A superb feature of this technology is that the quality of the BIF-frozen fish stays the same after two to three days, so that it tastes as fresh or as good as newly caught fish when grilled or cooked any other way.”

Under the old conventional handling method, Decena said that “we need to put ice to preserve fish and other perishable food items, which leads to crystallization that alters the quality and freshness of the frozen product. Hence, the marked difference in the texture and taste of newly caught fish from those that had been stored in the freezer or in ice-packed Styrofoam boxes.”

Moreover, it takes as little as 3 to 30 minutes (depending on type, size and volume of product to be process) to freeze a product using BIF, compared to the conventional method, which takes 3-4 hours to freeze a product using the air blast system, he said.

Another advantage of this technology is its mobility and easy plug-in feature, Decena said. “A BIF compartment, which has a wheeled stand, making it easy to transport and move around and plug into any available electrical outlet,” he added. “The old-type blast freezer or holding freezer needs to be permanently put in place and requires large installation works and a massive separate electrical supply.” 

The BIF freezer is also as user friendly and easy to use. Decena said. “You just wait to reach the ideal freezing temperature of between minus-30 degrees and minus-40 degrees, and then you can already start to freeze the product, whether it be fish, meat, fruits or vegetables.”

He said that “small fisherfolk who have to shell out extra to buy ice to help preserve the quality of their catch will benefit from this new technology. And consumers, of course, because they can buy two-day or three-day old stored fish that looks as fresh and tastes as good as newly caught ones.”   

BIF freezers can also be used as ice-making machines, he said, producing ice equivalent to a load of 3,000 kilos a day in less than two freezing hours per loading of 8- to 10-kilo mini block ice, unlike a conventional block ice maker that takes 37 hours to freeze a 130-kilo block of ice in a 20-to-60-tons-per-day capacity ice plant. 

Decena said that the closest thing to the BIF is the Individual Quick Freeze technology, currently the most popular means in instant-freeze refrigeration. About 500 kilos of products can be frozen within 20-60 minutes using instant quick freeze, with a power consumption of 500kw per ton.

BIF, on the other hand uses only 120kW/Ton to freeze 500 kilos of products in three to fifteen minutes, and requires just 4 people to operate, and 40 square meters of floor space unlike the Individual Quick Freeze method, which requires at least 10 people and 150 square meters of space (more than the size of a typical house in a low-cost or socialized housing project), he said.

Also, BIF uses alcohol as a secondary refrigerant that makes it a natural disinfectant, hence further ensuring the safety or cleanliness of the frozen items, he said. Alcohol is commercially used as a disinfectant, sterilizer and antiseptic solution.

Another advantage is its very low freezing point property, said Decena. “No bacteria or microorganism can survive the minus-30 to minus-40 degrees Celsius operating freezing temperature,” he said. “This ultra low-freezing temperature also creates less damage on the meat. Consequently, the substances in the cell is almost unchanged, so the taste, aroma and texture stays the same as fresh as before freezing.”

He said this new technology is really safe because the agri-freeze solution has been approved by the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) under its Microbiological Method of Bacteriological Analysis.

Pioquinto pointed out that the DA-Nabcor’s implementation of this postharvest program is “in step with the Arroyo administration’s goal not only to further raise farm yields but also to increase the incomes of farmers and fisherfolk by slashing postharvest losses that eat into their profits.”

“This Nabcor project is aboveboard and the public bidding was done in keeping with all processes required under the law,” she added. “The contract was awarded to IRSSI because it was the only company, among the four that had attended the Sept. 2 public bidding for the supply of the machines, which had fully abided with and passed all the legal and scientific processes and requirements laid out by Nabcor’s BAC, which is headed by Romulo Relevo.”

It was only IRSSI that submitted a formal bid, while representatives of three more companies—Kolonwell, JOAVI and Instrumech Philippines Inc.—attended the public bidding but surprisingly backed off from submitting their sealed bids, she said. 

However, in the interest of greater transparency, the BAC bent backwards, she said, and allowed the representatives of the three non-bidders not only to observe but even to participate in the bidding process even if they had surprisingly backed out at the last minute and abstained from submitting their respective bids .# # #  (DA Press Office)