Leading the Way in Quality and Food Safety
SMFI controls over 40 poultry processing plants nationwide. Along with its farm-level modernization, hatchery operations have also successfully employed single-stage hatchery incubation systems.
SMFI-operated chicken processing plants utilize mechanized systems of slaughtering broilers which promote animal welfare. Chicken processing plants vary in capacity from 10,000 – 50,000 broilers per day. Chickens are processed into different formats to serve the various requirements of SMFI’s wide range of customers. Mechanical weighing is employed to segregate carcasses by weight. To ensure top quality of the chickens processed, the in-and-out bird washer machine is used to clean the carcasses using high pressure water spraying. Chilling of the carcasses is done using the continuous screw and paddle chiller that keeps carcasses chilled at a temperature of 4 degrees Celsius or less.
Further processing operations managed by SMFI consist of cutting, deboning, portioning, skewering and marinating. Generally, these further processing activities are done manually to meet stringent and specific requirements for both domestic and foreign customers. The marination process utilizes refrigerated tumbling machines to achieve better marinade pick-up and uniformity. In addition to this, plants that serve institutional and export requirements, are equipped with vacuum packaging, shrink wrapping, inkjet labeling machines and metal detectors.
All equipment are compliant to the requirements of food safety standards.
Majority of our poultry plants have been granted with accreditation from external government bodies and its foodservice costumers. SMFI plants are the first in the Philippines to be certified to HACCP and GMP/SSOP by the National Meat Inspection Service, the government regulating agency and have managed to retain its accreditation every renewal period. Its San Fernando plant is the only poultry processing plant to-date to have been installed in the Hall of Fame for the Best Meat Establishment. Since the inception of the search for the Best Poultry Processing Plant in 1995, majority of the regional and national winners in the “AAA” category have always been SMFI plants. Some of SMFI’s processing plants are now ISO 9001:2008v and 22000-2005v certified by the Bureau of Product Standards of the Department of Trade and Industry and attached to UK or US standards. All other plants are in certifiable state as audited by trained San Miguel Corporation Food Safety and Quality Management System auditors.
SMFI plants, particularly in Mindanao, where a large segment of the Philippines’ Muslim population are concentrated are HALAL-accredited. Some plants in Luzon are also HALAL-certified, as the company gears to serve export requirements in the Middle East.
Corollary to the food safety system, SMFI implements a numeric product coding system for traceability. A product recovery system is also in place to ensure that the food safety management is implemented and working. All plants observe a strict biosecurity policy to prevent contamination of food as well as mandatory screening of visitors. Strict sanitation measures are also implemented to ensure that all tools, implements and facilities are appropriate for food processing.
