The government is targeting to ease the oversupply in coconut by training farmers and women’s groups to make vinegar using natural products, the Department of Agriculture (DA) said on Wednesday.
Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol said the DA and the PCA will conduct the one-day orientation and workshop under the Natural Vinegar Production Program, which will be launched on May 28. Under the program, farmers and women’s groups will be trained to produce vinegar using coconut, nipa sap, coco water, sugarcane juice, banana and other fruits.
“Invited to attend the first orientation-workshop on natural vinegar production are experts in the field and farmers and entrepreneurs who are already producing vinegar,” Piñol said in a Facebook post.
“Among the leading companies is Green Life Coco Products based in Laguna, which is producing 20 metric tons of organic coco sap vinegar and 60 MT of coco water vinegar monthly,” he added.
The workshop will tackle a number of subjects including the potentials of natural vinegar for household and industrial uses, equipment for processing coconut water into vinegar developed by the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) and the loan program of the Agricultural Credit Policy Council.
Piñol noted that vinegar-making is a traditional source of income for many coconut farmers in the country but it has been “ignored and neglected” by the government in the past.
“With the consumers now getting more health-conscious and opting for healthy food, the production of natural and organic vinegar has a huge market potential provided the production process, including the packaging, is improved with government assistance.”—Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol
For coconut water alone, Piñol said the Philippines produces 15 billion matured nuts yearly with farmers focused only on harvesting the coconut meat and throwing away the other parts of the nuts, including the water.
“Assuming that each nut contains 1/4 liter of coconut water, the volume of coconut water wasted is estimated at 3.5 billion liters. One liter of vinegar is now sold for P50 while fruit vinegar commands a higher price,” he added.
The DA is rolling out the natural vinegar production program after the Philippine Nuclear Research Institute’s (PNRI) found that most commercial vinegar brands use synthetic acetic acid.
Researchers from the PNRI used isotope-based analytical techniques to determine that from more than 360 samples of vinegar in the Philippines, 8 out of 10 are made from synthetic acetic acid. The PNRI is an attached agency of the DOST.
Standards for producing commercial vinegar were encapsulated in Administrative Order 134 issued by the Department of Health in 1970. AO 134 prohibited the use of “any artificial matter such as synthetic acetic acid.”
The Food and Drug Administration is currently updating the country’s vinegar standards using the PNRI study.
Image credits: Margouillat | Dreamstime.com
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