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BSU develops snack food to counter malnutrition

LA TRINIDAD, Benguet (July 7) — To address malnutrition in the Cordillera, a rice and mungbean (“munggo”, locally) snack food was developed by the Benguet State University-Food Processing Center (BSU-FPC) in partnership with the Food and Nutrition Research Institute (FNRI) and the regional Department of Science and Technology (DOST).

Dubbed “Nutrimo”, this snack food aims to compensate for the protein-energy malnutrition in the Cordillera, explained Dr. Jane Avila, FPC Manager. Cases of obesity, iodine and vitamin A deficiency are also malnutrition concerns in the region.

The product, which initially comes in a 10-gram pack and are packaged as barbeque-flavored curls, was developed as a result of a project involving the three institutions, Avila explained. The project, which started in 2001, is entitled “Urban and Rural Community Model of a Food-Based Livelihood Project for the Malnourished in CAR.”

Product ingredients include rice (preferably with low moisture content like the baak variety), munggo, Vitamin A fortified cooking oil, iodized salt, flavoring, and water.

“We are still working on new flavors, perhaps cheese or chocolate, kung alin ang mas gusto ng mga bata”, Avila explained.

She explained however, that the lack of local acceptors is an impediment to product promotion and use.

“In the LGUs for instance, they have their own feeding programs which promote meals, not snacks. In this regard, our project cannot be implemented”, she said.

The Coca-Cola Bottling Company, however, after reading an article on the product, offered to purchase Nutrimo to beef up its Nutribreak Program. With this, Nutrimo has landed in the Visayas, Nueva Vizcaya, Mindanao and Cagayan Valley. The product is also distributed in Aklan, Iloilo, Bohol, Negros Oriental, Palawan and Davao del Norte, aside from Baguio and Benguet.

The source and high cost of raw materials currently affect the production of Nutrimo.

“We do not have a fixed supplier yet, that is why raw materials come from the market”, Avila explained.

The FPC will work on intensifying product promotion in schools and municipalities and target commercial markets.

Avila explained that the problem of malnutrition is related to poverty, which gauges an individual or a family’s access to food, including the distribution of food # AT Bengwayan for NORDIS

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