Identification “5 HR” on Cekin fresh chicken products confirms that the entire process of hatching, growing and processing takes place in Croatia, and that poultry is fed only with food produced in Croatia.
After the products of the Varaždin-based Koka company received the indication “Meat from Croatian Farms” two years ago, which informs consumers about Croatian origin of meat and provides a guarantee of strict applicability of the traceability principle, fresh chicken products Cekin recently became the first certified Croatian products without genetically modified organisms (GMO free). This means that these products are made exclusively from controlled ingredients without GMOs, starting from the farm all the way to packaged products available in shops.
In addition to Cekin fresh chicken meat, the GMO-free certification has been awarded to Vindija’s fodder factory Blagodar, which supplies Koka’s and cooperative farms for breeding chickens. “We are immensely proud that Koka is the first producer in Croatia which has received the GMO-free certificate for fresh chicken meat, which once again confirmed that the Vindija group is the leader in Croatian food industry, a company which focuses on the health of its consumers. We wanted to offer our loyal customers a quality product that contains only natural raw materials and arrives on store shelves within 24 hours”, said director of Koka Stjepan Sabljak.
To further emphasize controlled origin and production, Vindija introduces the “5 HR” indication on the packaging of Cekin fresh chicken products, which confirms that the poultry, starting from the parent flocks, was hatched and bred in Croatia, fed with the food from Croatia and slaughtered and processed in Croatia, which is confirmed by the Ministry of Agriculture and its Administration for Food Quality and Phytosanitary Policy.
The closed and strictly controlled production cycle “from field to table”, as applied in the entire Vindija group, begins with the growing of grain for animal feed and continues with natural breeding of poultry and processing of chicken in modern technological conditions. Chickens are grown in specially designed facilities, which provide them with the most favourable microclimate with fresh air, clean water, and room to move. They are fed with food produced by company’s factory of corn-based fodder, with the addition of vitamins and minerals. The integrated poultry production is an important advantage because it guarantees the control of all stages of the production process. Therefore, Koka guarantees that households receive only the best and healthiest chicken.
The certification process was conducted by the authorized certification company “agroVet” from Austria, according to the standard code for defining GMO-free production and according to Austrian regulations on food products. Koka is a member of the Vindija group and has now expanded its portfolio of international certificates of quality and safety with the GMO-free certificate for Cekin fresh chicken meat.