Ready-to-eat duck products, instant vegetable dishes, Kangkong Kropek, and Vacuum-fried Orange Kamote Buchi were among the 50 newly developed food products launched by the University of the Philippines- Los Baños’ Calabarzon Food Innovation Center (FIC) for both domestic and international markets.

Department of Science and Technology (DOST) Secretary Fortunato “Boy” T. de la Peña bared this during his weekly report on Friday, March 5.

He said the launch of the 50 new innovative products was held on March 2 during the celebration of the 112th foundation day of UPLB’s College of Agriculture and Food Science.

“The Food Innovation Center of Calabarzon known as FIC-UPLB, funded through the DOST Grants-in-Aid (GIA) program, and operated by the Institute of Food Science and Technology UP Los Baños (IFST-UPLB), launched its newly developed innovative products,” the DOST chief said.

He said the products were featured in the activity dubbed as “50 Shades of Taste”.

"The FIC-UPLB launched its own version of ready-to-eat duck products, instant vegetable dishes like instant chopsuey and instant pinakbet; food ingredients like Pinoy Curry and Kamias-Taro Sinigang Mix; ready-to-drink beverages like Soymilk Ube; spray-dried juice beverages like Sapinit Juice Powder; snacks like vacuum-fried tofu; and ready-to-fry products like Kangkong Kropek and Vacuum-fried Orange Kamote Buchi,” De la Peña said.

It was DOST-Calabarzon that funded the development of some of these products through the project entitled “Utilization of DOST Designed Food Processing Equipment for Product Development of High Value and Industrial Crops from Calabarzon”, he noted.

"These locally-developed innovative products could compete in the local and international markets,” de la Peña said.