Innovation in food is one of the components being implemented by the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) as part of its Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation (DRR-CCA) in Health Program.
Citing the World Risk Index 2020 report, Science Secretary Fortunato T. de la Peňa recently said the country is the ninth most affected by extreme weather events. In November 2020 alone, four typhoons entered the country.
The Science chief underscored the important role of research and development in addressing the risk in disaster risk and management.
De la Peña said innovations in food is one of the components to address the challenges of feeding the victims of natural disasters the right food in the evacuation centers.
Besides the usual congestion and vulnerability to diseases, he said malnutrition is a big problem in evacuation centers.
“We launched food innovations to mitigate the nutritional and dietary effects of disasters,” de la Peña said in his presentation during the recent Talakayang HeaRT Beat that discussed the DRR-CCA in Health.
The DOST’s Philippine Council on Health, Research and Development (DOST-PCHRD) launched the program and conducted research to ensure the reduction of adverse health consequences during disasters.
De la Peña said the project will focus on the development of ready-to-eat food products for children aged 1 year to 5 years old.
“We will develop four ready to eat emergency products from abundant fresh produce in the Davao region,” he said.
Project Leader Maria Christina Ramos of the Philippine Women’s College of Davao said the four food products include fruit-veggie leather with puffed rice and peanuts, all veggie-monggo meal, all-veggie cornmeal porridge and seed-enriched whole grain biscuit.
Ramos said the team has completed the formulation of fruit-veggie leather with puffed rice and peanuts, and seed-enriched whole grain biscuit.
Meanwhile, the development of all veggie-monggo meals and all veggie cornmeal porridge are still ongoing.
Moreover, de la Peña said the team has also conducted sensory evaluation for the completed formulations among residents of target barangays.
“The development of production processes and food safety tests are ongoing,” Ramos said.
She added that the team has identified 14 municipalities in Nueva Vizcaya for the field testing of the device prototypes.
With the limited access to food during disasters, she pointed out that proper nutrition remains a challenge especially for the vulnerable children.
“This project aims to address the nutrition of children during disasters,” she said.
De la Peña said there is a need to boost innovations in science and technology to improve the government’s health services during disasters.
He said the DOST has allotted P90 million in the DDR-CCA since its start in 2017.
“Right now, we have five completed projects, 11 ongoing projects and four new projects. empower residents of Region 4-B,” he said.
The health development index in Region 4-B provides a health vulnerability reduction system containing information on environmental quality of specific areas in the province.