Local bakery marks World Bread Day with enriched Nutribun
LOCAL bakery Tinapayan Festival is celebrating World Bread Day in Oct. 16, as well as announcing its partnership with the Department of Science and Technology – Food and Nutrition Research Institute (DOST-FNRI) to create the new Nutribun.
Tinapayan Festival is one of the first accredited bakeries to produce the new Nutribun, which incorporates agricultural crops like kamote (sweet potato) and squash for added nutritional value. The bakery has been producing the enhanced bread since 2020.
“The DOST-FNRI has reformulated the Nutribun of the 1970s by making it more nutrient-dense through locally sourced vegetables,” said Renato U. Solidum, Jr., Secretary of Department of Science and Technology during a webinar earlier this week. The Philippines received loaves of Nutribun under the Food for Peace program of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) beginning in the 1970s to combat malnutrition in schoolchildren.
“This is our humble contribution to mitigate the impacts of malnutrition and poverty due to the global economic crisis that further aggravates skyrocketing costs of wheat flour and other baking ingredients,” said Mr. Solidum.
He said that the DOST-FNRI has been developing several E-Nutribun (Enhanced Nutribun) varieties since 2000. “To date, the Nutribun has 186 food technology licensees nationwide who are regularly supplying for the feeding programs of the DepEd (Department of Education) and the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).”
Luis Chavez, COO of the Manufacturing Division of Tinapayan Festival said that beneficiaries of the program include schoolchildren and since the start of the pandemic in 2020, have been distributed in schools.
“Mayroong programa rin na parte ang Tinapayan. Ito’y programa naman ni Sen. Imee Marcos. Kami’y lubos ding nagpapasalamat sa kaniya sa pagbibigay ng kanilang tiwala.” (We, Tinapayan, also have a program under Senator Imee Marcos. We heartfully thank her for her trust in us.)
This program distributed the buns (enhanced with squash and other crops) throughout Luzon and the National Capital Region during the pandemic.
“DOST provides financial assistance programs to improve the technology of the bakeries in our country by providing loans to buy equipment and machineries. They provide around P1 million to P2 million in loans to bakeries to buy equipment and machineries and for the improvement of both technology and management (including improvement of ovens and mixers used),” said Mr. Chavez through a Facebook message.
Aside from these, DOST also provides bakeries with managements consultants to help them improve their management systems and operations.
“With their Nutribun project, they’ve helped the DepEd with the product of innovation Enhanced Nutribun. Currently, DepEd has [the] budget to procure these Nutribuns from bakeries to supply to schools and students,” he said.
Mr. Chavez also said that the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has also provided training to Tinapayan Festival and other local bakeries over the past years.
Tinapayan Festival’s Agri-Nutribun is sold at P24 for an 80-gram bun which is 40% composed of local agricultural produce such as squash, carrots, ube (purple yam), malunggay (moringa), kamote, and other crops. — Joseph L. Garcia
