A women-led enterprise assisted by the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) through its Provincial Science and Technology Center (PSTC) in Misamis Oriental now helps housewives to earn extra income.
Bestfriend Goodies, a beneficiary of the Small Enterprise Technology Upgrading Program (SETUP), one of the flagship programs of DOST, established its second production facility dedicated to the production of enhanced nutribun (eNutribun), a technology developed by the DOST-Food and Nutrition Research Institute.
The enterprise now employs 60 local workers, mostly housewives. During peak production, the firm employs more than 70 persons including on-calls.
During pre-pandemic, the firm produced only pasalubong (souvenir food), but now concentrates on ready-to-eat (RTE) nutritious foods.
It has sought further assistance from DOST for adoptive five more variants of the RTE technology including arroz caldo (rice and chicken soup), binignit (Visayan dessert soup), champorado (chocolate rice porridge), chicken tinola (broth soup), and monggo with dilis (mung bean with anchovy), packaged in pouches.
"This project does not only improve the economic status by employing the locals but helps empower employed housewives," said PSTC-Misamis Oriental Director Junelyn-Louvena Ruiz.
"There is now a sustainable supply for RTE nutritious food in the region for undernourished children, nutritionally at-risk pregnant and lactating women, food packs during calamities, and support to feeding programs by the government and NGOs as this is the first RTE Technology Manufacturing Facility in Mindanao," DOST said.