TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol, May 26 (PIA) --Bohol gets a power boost nutrition-wise, when a nutri-power baby food blend plant opens to commercially manufacture healthy food for kids 6 months old to 36 months.
A facility developed with the help of the Food and Nutrition Research Institute of the Department of Science and Technology (FNRI-DOST), the new Bohol Nutri-Power baby Food Blend plan now sits in Barangay Sal-ing, Balilihan, through Jardin de Balilihan Food Manufacturing Company.
Selling itself as a ready to cook "healthy alternative to your little one," Nutri-power is a packed blend of rice, mongo beans and sesame seeds as specified by the FNRI and is crucial to the bone and brain development of the very young kids, says entrepreneur Menen Apalisok-Valdez of Jardin de Balilihan.
First in the Visayas and Mindanao area, the Nutri-power food blend plant could also be probably the only private sector initiated plant in the country as most have government counterparts in their anti-nutrition efforts, Valdez added.
In Barangay Sal-ing, where the facility is set up, Jardin conducted a supplemental feeding to about 40 kids aged 6-36 Monday, May 25, after a weighing of the beneficiary kids.
In Sal-ing too, Sangguniang Pambarangay Committee on Health chairwoman Basilia Casanoba, in their workshops averred that the lack of proper nutrition is among their kid-nutrition problems.
They also listed lack of income limiting parents to find options for more nutritious food, while some noted that parents are not as creative in preparing alternative sources of nutrition for their kids.
Here, Valdez hoped their new nutri-power blend accomplishes what poverty and lack of options could not provide.
Valdez said they packed 14 packs of free Nutri-power blend which should be enough for two weeks of feeding. One pack can be dissolved in three cups of water and a little dash of sugar or honey, boil for about 10 minutes, and a cup for every meal would be a good supplement, Valdez, who personally distributed the packs to kids parents explained.
"All you need to do is feed the child a pack everyday and notice what happens after two weeks," Valdez urged the parents who were helping prepare and cook the blend in a rice cooker.
"We want to let the parents see the big difference when they can feed the kids with the nutri-power blend so that after two weeks, we will call them again to weigh the kids and monitor the changes in weight," she said.
The NUTRI-PLANT
Jardin set up in Sal-ing a modern food blend plant that hopes to produce more than enough for the needs of Bohol's young kids in developing brains and bones by supplementing their food intakes with ready to cook nutri-blend.
The facility includes an open area and a sanitized area where food blend could be manufactured.
We have to make sure everything is clean as we are feeding this to infants and kids who may not have strong immune systems, Valdez explained.
The sanitized room is air-conditioned, contains sealed stock rooms, cooking vats, drying pans, milling station, packaging booth and an open display shelf where their finished products are set up for sale.
About 6 employees have been hired to man the machines, and these workers report on shifts while the plant is just starting, Valdez said.
Our next plan is to make a blend that would fit the needs of the elementary school kids, she added.
Nutri-power blend, being syrupy can also be very good for the old people who may have problems masticating hard food.
Nutri-power blend is sold at P7.00 per pack, which can be consumed in three meals. (rac/PIA-7Bohol)
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