Ready-to-eat (RTE) Arroz Caldo is now ready for commercialization.

It is one of the home-grown technologies developed by the Department of Science and Technology- Industrial Technology Development Institute (DOST-ITDI) under the “Pack of Hope” project.

DOST Senior Science Research Specialist Cherry Luz Moico said the ITDI researchers developed the product in 2014 “to address immediate hunger of disaster victims.”

"The Philippines is vulnerable to natural and man-made calamities. Although we have have shown the world resiliency towards these calamities, hazards, food security is still lacking during such times,” she said during the agency’s Strategy to Accelerate and Revitalize Technology Transfer (StARTT) in Calabarzon region-Technology Transfer Day on May 7.

She said during calamities and disasters, communities are hounded by lack of food supplies, water supplies and nutritional food for children.

“So in order for these problems to be addressed, the researchers of theITDI have developed technology that will address immediate hunger during calamities, second is to provide victims with safe food through longer shelf life of the product, and third, is to aid in quick response in the distribution of goods to the victims,” Moico explained.

Among the key features of their product are the following:

-It is ready to eat without preparation.

-Its packaging structure is lightweight and very handy.

-It can be distributed by land, sea, surface, water submersion, and 20 feet aerial drop.

-The shelf life of the product is one year.

“This technology, this product is registered or applied for intellectual property rights under the name of the DOST-ITDI at the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL),” Moico said.

She said the technology fee amounts to P180,000.

“This P180,000 will cover the training cost, we will train you at our Institute, we will have lecture and knowledge transfer there and the fee will include assistance when you start producing the product,” she said.

She said the investment cost is P14 million “because the equipment cost is almost P7 million.”

“if you are going to invest on this, our net present value is P10 million and the internal rate of return is 48 percent with payback period of 2.02 years,” Moico said.

For those who are interested to adopt the technology, they may contact Floridel Liberian of the ITDI’s Packaging Technology Division (PTD) at 02-8837-7530.