Fishpond owners in the flood-stricken Pangasinan could have avoided losing millions due to the onslaught of typhoon ‘‘Pepeng’’ if only they have that new technology that would allow them to harvest early, sell only a portion of their catch so as not to overflow the market and turn the rest of the harvest into instant frozen “bangus” products.  
    
According to media reports, fishpond operators lost big time as a result of the floods.  A hectare of fishpond contains between 5,000 and 10,000 bangus while fish cages that culture bangus can hold as much as 50,000 fishes. 
   
As the devastation of typhoon ‘‘Pepeng’’ draws closer, fishpond owners were left with only two choices: to harvest their fish stock early or watch helplessly as floodwaters carried away their bangus.  However they decide, they stand to lose since they were forced to sell their products at dirt-cheap prices from the average of P90 a kilo to just P30.  
   
Although we may have ample supplies of foodstuffs stocked up, one major concern was the destruction of food supply in areas submerged in floodwaters and the spectre of all foodstuffs rotting in warehouses after typhoons “Ondoy” and “Pepeng” blacked out major food-producing areas in northern and central Luzon. 
   
Under a crisis of Ondoy-like proportions, this new technology called brine immersion freezing (BIF), can play a key role in keeping the supply and prices of basic food items stable both for the benefit of consumers and our local producers.  
   
Filipino inventor, Mr. Hernie Decena, said the “revolutionary method” in preserving aquatic products, meat, fruits and non-leafy vegetables using super-conductive liquid instant freeze would allow farmers and farm producers to keep their extra harvest inside BIF freezers and sell them later with no effect on prices because the frozen fish looks as good and tastes as good as newly-caught fish. 
   
Liquid instant freeze allows instant freezing, which, as a result, eliminates crystallization, thus preserving the freshness, flavor and texture of the frozen product.  The BIF Freezer is on display this November during the convention and seminar-exhibit of the Philippine Society of Mechanical Engineers at the SM Mall of Asia in Pasay City. 
   
Decena said that products like fish and meat, if properly processed using BIF, can be stored for two to three days in styrofoam boxes without using ice.  When stored inside freezers or chillers after the BIF freezing, they can last up to six months. 
   
Under the old conventional freezing method, 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. 
   
Brine immersion freezing, on the other hand, preserves the quality and state of the product as it was before it was frozen. Thus, fish stored using BIF remain fresh when unfrozen. There’s no such thing as a bilasang isda using brine immersion freezing.  
   
The BIF Freezer technology is part of a laudable project of the National Agribusiness Corp. (Nabcor) which unfortunately is now under threat in the wake of the highly-suspicious move by the representative of a “non-bidder” to file a graft case against officials of Nabcor and its mother agency, the Department of Agriculture (DA), before the Office of the Ombudsman. 
   
Charges of irregularities in the bidding for this project involving a state-of-the-art postharvest facility was filed by Allan Ragasa, who claims to represent a company called Sunvar. 
   
Ragasa was questioning the awarding to the Integrated Refrigeration Systems and Services, Inc. (IRSSI) a P455.7-million project for the acquisition of 98 units of multi-function, ice-making machines with liquid-freeze capability as part of the stepped-up government program to provide postharvest facilities to farmers and fisherfolk and make farming and fishing more profitable for them. 
   
This corner believes the complaint is baseless since the complainant is comparing apples and oranges in saying the unit price of BIF freezers is far costlier than that of the ice-making facilities previously acquired by the government as part of its postharvest program. 
   
It must be noted that standard ice-making facilities only produce ice used by fisher folks and other agriculture stakeholders to store or preserve their catch or harvests.  In the new Nabcor project, ice-making is but a bonus of this BIF equipment, which can store or freeze a lot of commodities from fish, chicken and pork to fruits and non-leafy vegetables without using ice.