DOST to partner with Palo for veggie noodle processing plant

THE Department of Science and Technology (DOST) in Leyte is set to have partnership with the local government unit of Palo, to construct and operate a processing plant for veggie noodles while in the city of Tacloban they will focus on producing street foods that are fortified with nutrients.

This project was a result on the survey conducted by the Food and Nutrition Research Institute, citing that the most common problem of local government unit is nutrition.

Glen Ocaña, provincial director of DOST said that they had already release the funds for Palo and Tacloban, which they hope to start the project in this first quarter.

“What we want in our project in Palo is to ensure that even time of calamities, people would be eating foods that are nutritious, and we will started it with the processing of veggie cup noodles,” Ocaña said.

He added that once the products are done by the end of the quarter, they will start in marketing it in the province.

The Tacloban project will be implemented in Barangay Anibong which they are hoping to start this quarter.

Street foods that are fortified and were formulated with the FNRI are to be marketed in Tacloban to ensure that children and street food lovers would be eating and getting enough or right nutrition from the food they are eating.

In the project of Palo, it is located in Brgy San Fernando wherein it is envision to be a source of livelihood of barangay residents and at the same time could held people living in depressed area to have nutritious food in a cheaper amount.

Aside from Palo and Tacloban, Ocaña added that a no-cook nutritious food made from rice, monggo and sesame seeds are now being produced in Baybay City, under the partnership with the City Government.

“This food is for infant and children age 3 years old, but we will also market this for sick people and elderly,” he added.

The same project will also be implemented in the town of Hilongos but this time it is in partnership with the office of Senator Pia Cayetano.

A processing plant of nutritious food products for school age children. (Leyte Samar Daily Express)