Cusipag, Jonelou A.

BSChE V

On our Plant tour, we explored the processing of meat to produce a “Chicha-rabao” located at
Larion Bajo of Lighthouse Cooperative Incorporation and dairy production sold under the name
“Ytawes Fresh” located at CSU Piat. Chicha-rabao is a variant of “Chicharon” (pork
crackling)Cited from Philippine Daily Inquirer, Arturo Tabbu, the general manager of Lighthouse
Cooperative said that “We process an average of 2,100 kilograms of carabao hide a week to make
Chicha-rabao” Lighthouse cooperative, which, in 2006 started producing the crackling as a part
of menu of items sold under “Ybanag Food Products”.

So from this, if 2,100 kilograms of carabao hide a week is used, approximately 300 kilograms
a day is utilize to process the meat into crackling. In addition to what Sir Tabbu said, about 30 kg
of cracklings are produced from every 100 kilograms of carabao hide onto which the cooperative
buys the hide at P40 per kilogram from slaughterhouses in Tuguegarao City and the towns of Piat,
Lal-lo and Baggao, all in Cagayan Province. Based from this, I generalized that the the utilization
of carabao hide is economical and productive.

For the processing part of meat, the input is the carabao hide which is then sheared, cut into
small squares, boiled to make it soft, and after cooling, boiled again in low fire for 14 to 16 hours.
It takes two to three days to complete the process, which includes deep frying the soft hide and
packaging the finished product. When we went to the processing area, good manufacturing
practices are observed, from the receiving and using the raw materials into packaging. For me, this
should be a must for every food processing since this food is a thing we consume on our daily diet.

Another thing I observed is that on the sealing and packaging, they use Nitrogen gas to purge
food packaging. Well this is a safe practice widely used throughout the food industry. When food
such as crisps for example Chicha-rica (“rica” coming from “rice and cassava”), the bag’s empty
space is filled with an inert gas such as nitrogen to prevent food spoiling so quickly. Another reason
that nitrogen gas is used is to provide a pressurized atmosphere that prevents package collapse.
For the equipment used, rest assured the process it is. Why? Because the Lighthouse Cooperative
has been assisted by the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) and the Department of
Trade and Industry (DTI) for the processing, packaging and labelling.

Next destination we went to was the Dairy Production at CSU-Piat Dairy Center. We first went
to the cow stable but as soon as we get closer to take a look on the cows, we were prevented in
doing such thing because the cows are said to be sensitive to stress which will affect the yield of
milk.