The convenience food market continues its global expansion, with consumers increasingly seeking products that combine ease of preparation with premium quality. In the Middle East, chicken mosahab – tender, breaded chicken strips made from whole muscle meat – represents a significant opportunity. Yet production has remained largely manual, limiting scalability and consistency.

At Nienstedt, we’ve spent 75+ years perfecting precision cutting and portioning technology for frozen foods, particularly in fish finger production. Now, we’re applying that expertise to transform chicken mosahab manufacturing through an integrated automation solution.

Manual production faces several persistent challenges

• limited throughput
• Varying portion sizes
• product consistency and cost control
• waste and reduced yield
• food safety considerations

Recognizing this gap, we set out to develop a systematic, automated approach that could bring the same precision and efficiency we’ve delivered to the seafood industry to whole-muscle poultry applications.

To create a complete solution, we partnered with two established European specialists: Beck Pack Systems in Denmark for block formation and hygienic handling, and DSI Dantech for advanced plate freezing technology.

The integrated process

The production sequence we’ve developed consists of six distinct stages:

Step 1 – Block Formation: Fresh or marinated chicken meat is loaded into specialized waxed liners developed by Beck Pack Systems. These food-grade liners enable structured filling and hygienic handling while facilitating consistent block dimensions – creating the ideal foundation for our precision cutting technology. The process offers a high degree of flexibility when it comes to your choice of inputs: chicken breast or trimmings, different quality grades, marinated or not.

Step 2 – Freezing: Filled frames enter horizontal plate freezers DSI Dantech, where product rapidly reaches a core temperature of -18°C. This quick-freezing method maintains product quality while providing the structural stability our sawing systems require.

Step 3 – Storage: Frozen blocks are temporarily stored, enabling production scheduling flexibility and buffer inventory management.

Step 4 – Unpacking: Blocks are released from their waxed liners, either manually or through automated systems, preparing them for downstream processing.

Step 5 – Portioning: This is where our core expertise comes into play. Our precision sawing technology cuts frozen blocks into uniform planks or portions with tolerances measured in millimeters. Advanced blade technology – refined through decades of fish finger production – ensures clean cuts without product damage or excessive waste generation. This precision is critical for achieving the consistent portion weights and dimensions that manual cutting simply cannot match.

Step 6 – Shaping: Here’s where our innovation creates additional value. Using our proprietary shaping systems, portions can be further customized into specific shapes – think nugget or entirely new formats – responsive to market trends.