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Complementary foods, according to the Department of Science and Technology’s Food and Nutrition Research Institute (DOST-FNRI) are food or liquids other than breast milk that are fed to young children.

These foods address mothers’ concerns on how to feed their babies six months old and onward when their nutritional needs are rapidly increasing. It is at this stage when malnutrition sets in and may have abject effects to children.

DOST-FNRI developed complementary foods mainly to address the malnutrition problem in the country, particularly among babies 6 to 35 months old.

“The first two years of life are very crucial to children,” said DOST-FNRI Director Mario Capanzana. “Any damage caused by malnutrition may be irreversible.”

Using simple technology and locally available raw materials, the FNRI developed baby foods as part of its corporate social responsibility. Several towns from four provinces—Antique, Occidental Mindoro, Leyte and Iloilo—have so far benefited from the FNRI-developed baby foods.

FNRI has developed a wide variety of complementary food blends and snack foods, which it named “Bigmo” for bigas (rice) and mung bean.

For infants 6 to 12 months old, Bigmo Rice-Mongo Instant Blend and ready-to-cook Rice-Mongo-Sesame Blend are most appropriate, the institute said.

For older children, the Bigmo Rice Mongo Curls has proven to be a hit. This crispy, ready-to-eat snack is rich in protein (2.4 g per serving of 20 g) and energy (94 g per serving of 20 g).

Compared with commercial baby foods, the FNRI-developed Bigmo products have much higher protein and energy content, an FNRI study shows.

All Bigmo products are produced by extrusion cooking. The extruder machine shapes and cuts the mixed ingredients into the desired size, and cooks the product using pressure.

The Bigmo Curls have a shelf life of four months, while the Rice-Mongo Instant Blend and the Ready-to-eat Rice-Mongo-Sesame Blend can stand one year at room temperature.

INTERESTED entrepreneurs, DOST-FNRI’s Joyce Tobias says, have to invest in several equipment, such as weighing scale, mixer, extruder, moisture analyzer, electric dryer, octagonal mixer, impulse sealer and auto pack machine.

For a monthly production capacity of 250,000 packs of Bigmo curls at 20 grams per pack, Tobias says that required raw materials include 133,000 kilograms (kg) of rice; 84,000 kg of mung bean; 2,170 kg of flavoring; and 2,170 kg of cooking oil.

A baby foods production business does not entail a large cost, Tobias said.

“All the equipment are fairly cheap and readily available. The only one with cost is the extruder.”

For a fully automated production, entrepreneurs need  P5 million for an imported twin screw extruder that can produce curls of different shapes at a speed of 80 kg per hour, says Tobias.

However, a cheaper, a locally fabricated extruder costs P1.5 million in which produces one shape of curls and automatically packs the products in singles.

ADOPTION of FNRI’s baby foods production technology entitles entrepreneurs of the Institute’s technical support, such as layout of the production area, hands-on training on the processing technology, technology-transfer document to include quality control assurance from raw materials to the finish product, and basics on 

Good Manufacturing Practices implementation.

To make it more convenient to adaptors and to maintain FNRI’s strict quality control, the institute has already prepared a recommended layout for Bigmo curls processing plant, plus a process flow.

There is a big potential market for baby foods, assures Tobias, who heads the Technology Transfer unit at FNRI.

“There is an estimated 3.35 million underweight children under five years of age,” she says. “Thus, the market is big.”

“Moreover, Bigmo curls would appeal to schoolchildren and adults looking for healthy foods. There are also many busy parents and teenagers looking for convenient and nutritious foods,” she adds.

According to Tobias, FNRI is developing many other baby food combinations, such as cowpea-banana, mung bean-kamote (sweet potato)-sesame, germinated rice-mung bean, germinated rice-cowpea and other new and exciting flavor combinations.

(Framelia V. Anonas/S&T Media Service)

* A unique business opportunity indeed!