Vietnam is experimenting with preserving chicken meat to keep it fresh for 6 months.

The black chickens of the H'Mông people in Northwest Vietnam are a valuable breed used in traditional medicine, but if not properly preserved, the quality and nutritional value of the meat are significantly reduced.

Traditional freezing technologies, such as dehydration or irradiation, have many limitations. In freezing technology, the process of cooling ice crystals damages the tissue structure, making it impossible to freeze.recovery andIrradiation alters the sensory properties of food. Irradiation is inconvenient because frozen chicken must be irradiated and kept at a temperature of -17.8 degrees Celsius before being exported abroad...

To ensure the quality of chicken for export, it is required that after storage, the chicken meat retains its color and does not lose vitamins or trace elements.K, Na, Ca...). Nresearch group belonging to VInstitute for Regional Research and Development, Ministry of Science and TechnologyScience and Technology haveExperiments are being conducted on preserving cells using CAS (Cell Alive System) – a cell preservation technology – to solve this problem.

Since January 2017, the research team has includedEngineer Dao Thuy Duong andMs. Ta Thu Hang selected the sample.Hmong chicken(weighing between 1.2 kg and 1.5 kg) for the experiment.Color, fat content, protein, and micronutrient levels were measured before and after storage.

The results show that, afterAfter 6 months, black chicken meat preserved using CAS technology maintained the same color and firmness characteristics as the original. The water loss rate decreased by only 2.35%, and the pH index decreased slightly to 5.9.Sensory quality and microbiological indicators ensure food safety and hygiene in accordance with TCVN 7046:2009 on fresh meat.

The project was approved in December 2017. Ms. Ta Thu Hang, a member of the research team, said that this technology was transferred from Japan (June 2013) and is currently being tested by the Institute for Regional Research and Development on various food and agricultural products.

The research team also tested various thawing methods (microwave, room temperature, water, etc.) and found that using cold water at 10°C, changing it every 30 minutes for 120 minutes, resulted in the best meat quality and lowest water loss rate.

This success has given businesses and chicken production facilities the confidence to offer their products for export to other countries. However, the technology is currently very expensive (over 10 billion VND/ton/day and over 20 billion VND/ton/hour), so businesses are not easily inclined to invest until they have sufficiently large orders.

Ms. Hang stated that, to support businesses, the Institute for Regional Research and Development can provide services and outsource production to businesses that do not yet have the resources to invest in technology.

The operating principle of CAS technology

CAS technology uses magnetic fields, similar to a microwave oven, but combines this with a cooling system to preserve agricultural products, maintaining their cellular structures as if they were freshly harvested.

The system operates on the principle that when the device emits a magnetic field, it creates a weak, evenly distributed energy that loosens food molecules without breaking their walls and membranes. These cells, along with water molecules, form a mixture that freezes together, thus limiting the freezing that occurs in traditional preservation technologies.

Depending on the type of food, agricultural product, or seafood, CAS can be used with different magnetic field intensities. To apply this technology, users simply need to install a CAS device or add CAS functionality to their existing refrigeration system.

CAS's rapid cooling process is divided into 3 stages:

Step 1: Use low energy to prevent water molecules from clumping together and maintain ultra-cold conditions to accelerate the cooling process.

Step 2: The membranes and cell walls are stabilized by cooling, so there is no damage to the preserved agricultural products.

Step 3: Once the frozen product is removed, it retains its original quality and can be stored for 1-3 years, or even 10 years.