MMs Dong Nai pork platform. The wholesaler committed to working closely with farmers and authorities to ensure quality control for pork products

Wholesaler MM Mega Market Vietnam (MM) has announced it has been working closely with farmers and authorities to tighten control over quality of pork products at all stages from breeding to slaughter and transportation to ensure safe pork is supplied to consumers.

Working with farmers to combat diseases at the farm

Since its launch in June 2017, the Dong Nai pork platform is now entirely supplying safe pork to MM stores in Central and South Viet Nam. This transit facility is run in close co-ordination with farmers and pig farming meets VietGAP standards and quality is strictly controlled in a closed loop. MM is currently in partnership with nearly 400 farms in Dong Nai, and provides the market with more than 250 tonnes of clean, safe pork a month.

In this time of disease outbreaks, Phidsanu Pongwatana, managing director, MM Mega Market Vietnam, said, “MM has maintained close communication with the Dong Nai Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, advocating farms to participate in the outbreak control training that is available.

“We have been working with the farmers on the ground to increase the frequency of disinfection of the farms and workers and keep strangers away from the farms as much as possible to prevent the diseases from spreading.

“Importantly, our agricultural engineers have been here every step of the way with the farmers to maintain strict control of the foods and drinks we give to pigs.”

Furthermore, all the breeding farms that are in partnership with MM are also being closely monitored by the local sub-department of livestock production and veterinary, which has been a valuable source of training in farming procedures and animal health knowledge, as well as how to prevent and control diseases.

The pigs raised at farms are all marked with traceability rings and put through urinal rapid tests to find any banned substances, and visually checked for skin colour and overall physical condition before being slaughtered and taken to the market.

Strict process control from slaughterhouse to outlets

Besides being closely watched throughout the farming process, before being taken to the slaughterhouse pigs from participating farms are clinically examined by veterinarians and must get a healthy pig certificate before they are permitted to be slaughtered.

In the post-slaughter stage, the vets continue to examine the pork quality, stamp the products and issue a certificate for each batch. At the slaughterhouse, the trucks that carry the pork to the MM Mega Market system are sealed.

To keep the meat fresh, MM Mega Market Vietnam has made serious investments to obtain advanced equipment and specialised trucks.

At the pick-up points, MM quality control teams check the transport temperature by accessing the temperature log inside the specialised trucks to make sure the temperature remains at 2 - 4oC, and once again examine the pork quality before chopping the meat and taking it to consumers.

Every pork product on sale at MM stores comes with a QR code stamp for traceability for origin, allowing buyers to easily check information about the originating farm, standards applied and slaughter date among others with just a click of their smart phones.

Currently a supplier to more than a million HORECA (hotels, restaurants, canteens) customers, Phidsanu said confidently: “Food quality and safety remain our top priority when we serve our customers. MMs fresh food quality has been firmly established after a decade in Vietnam.

“Our food platforms, including our pork platform, also have capable farm engineers sent to the farms to provide advice and guidance to make sure that the products not only meet VietGAP standards but also MM Mega Market's own standards."

One of the frontrunners in growing and developing the value chain-based farming model, MMs Dong Nai pork platform is a joint operation with LIFSAP (Livestock Competitiveness and Food Safety Project, World Bank) and farmers.

This value chain model is under strict control from the farm to the slaughterhouse and until the products are distributed to the market, offering consumers safe pork products, especially in the current context of pig diseases that are worrying buyers.