Making Tocino for Your Home-Based Business

It’s easy to start a business processing raw meat into sweet pork or tocino and then selling it for profit. You may consign your product with dealers, canteen operators, caterers, and grocery stores.

Start-up capital is P6,000 to P7,000, and time to finish is 1 day.

Materials Needed:

You may buy your meat from the wet market, meat shop or supermarket, but make sure you get it from someone who sells only fresh meat and observes proper hygiene and sanitation. Buy early. If you’re buying meat from the wet market, make sure to do so before 12 noon. Meat will start to smell and ferment by midday.

Materials Needed:

• Measuring spoon and cups
• Kitchen weighing scales
• Mixing bowls (preferably stainless steel)
• Spatula
• Funnel

Ingredients:

The loin part of the pig is perfect for making tocino. Start with 30 kilograms of meat initially and buy mixing ingredients in small packs selling at P25 to P40.

Meat:

• 1kg. Pork pigue or kasim, with or without skin. Boneless, sliced 1/4 inch thick

Extenders (optional):

• In 1/2 cup water add 1/4 cup textured vegetable protein (TVP)
• Hydrate for 3 minutes.
• Add 1 tbsp Isolate and 1/2 tsp Carageenan

Curing Ingredients:

• 1 tbsp – Salt, refined
• 1/2 tsp – Curing salt
• 1 tsp – Phosphate, dissolve in 1/4 cup water
• 1/4 tsp – Vitamin C powder

Seasonings:

• 3/4 cup – Sugar, refined
• 2 tbsp – Garlic, chopped finely
• 2 tbsp – Anisado wine
• 1/4 cup – Pineapple juice
• 1/2 tsp – Vetsin (MSG)
• 1 tsp – Food color dissolve in 1/2 cup of water
• 1/2 tsp – Meat enhancer
• 1 tsp – Paprika powder
• 1/2 tbsp – Black pepper, ground

It’s up to you to decide whether or not to use artificial coloring and extenders like textured vegetable protein, isolate, carageenan, and qualicel to increase your yield and your margin.

Earmark about P2,000 for utensils and equipment, about P800 for a poly sealer and enough money for polyehtylene plastic bags. (P0.35 each)

If you want a separate refrigerator or freezer for storing processed meat, be ready to invest more money and observe a first in, first out policy.

Procedure

1. Some entrepreneurs prefer using lactic acid to wash the meat before processing “to preserve its water-holding capacity and kill of bacteria,” says Lourdes Rivera, a lecturer on meat processing at the Ultima Entrepinoy Forum Center in Quezon City,  “Instead of washing with water, wipe the meat with cloth and rinse with lactic acid.”
2. Chill the meat at 4° C at least an hour before processing.
3. Slice it before curing with “curing ingredients”.
4. Mix the extenders and seasoning and add them to the meat.
5. Cure the meat at room temperature or refrigerate it for 8-12 hours before packing it in polyethylene bags (half a kilo for each bag).
6. Finally, store the meat in the freezer where it will keep up to 3 months.

Tips: Be patient. It may take you 3 months to recoup your initial investment. If you can’t wait that long, the business may not be for you.

How Much Will You Make

Rivera says you’ll make as much as P37.15/kg of tocino if you mark it up by 30-50% of your production cost.

Meat processing ingredients above can be bough at Spices & Foodmix,  Tel: 411-1349, 742-0826.

See also: Meat Processing Business

source: Patrick Laxamana, www.entrepreneur.com.ph, photos by Ocs Alvarez