Don Mariano Marcos Memorial State University (DMMMSU) helps ensure food security as a global development goal with its latest project Production and Distribution of Ready-to-Eat Solar Dried and Vacuum Fried Fish Products as Quick Response to COVID-19 Pandemic or simply RTE. The project in partnership with the Department of Science and Technology (DOST)- Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic, and Natural Resources Research and Development (PCAARRD) in coordination with DOST Region 1 Office is now in its second phase.
With a whopping 3.7-million-peso funding, the RTE project aims to produce and distribute ready-to-eat fish products that are hygienically dried and vacuum fried by advanced drying and frying technologies to ensure better food quality. The RTE project also aims to provide quick response to COVID-19-affected families in the region. Through this process called value-adding, locally abundant marine species such as anchovy (dilis), marine goby, hairtail fish (espada), pony fish, and other market staples are given longer shelf life for possible adoption and commercialization by local fish processors.
During the project’s first phase, the standardization of processes in transforming potential fish species into ready-to-eat products was finalized. The value-added fish products were then distributed to pandemic-affected families in upland municipalities of La Union, Benguet, and Pangasinan through community pantry setups called LINGAP.
In its current phase, the RTE project has so far distributed hygienically processed fish products to more than 60 families in Northern Luzon. It has sent solar-dried sardines (tuyo) and milkfish (solar-dried and smoked) as relief goods to displaced families by the landslides in Banaue, Ifugao in July 2022. Distribution of products was also held in the municipalities of Burgos, La Union on October 12 and in Dumalneg, Ilocos Norte on December 20, 2022.
The use of the Multi-Commodity Solar Tunnel Drier was maximized in the hygienic processing and production of ready-to-cook products and the vacuum frying equipment at the Food Innovation Center (FIC) at Pangasinan State University, Bayambang, Pangasinan for the ready to eat products ready for distribution.
Coordination and partnerships with various local government units, government agencies (FIC-DOST, BFAR), and fish suppliers were forged to ensure the efficiency of project delivery.
Targeting both food insecurity and better food quality, the project promotes the production and consumption of hygienically dried fish products which are a major source of protein and have been found to help lessen the occurrence of heart diseases.
The project is led and managed by Prof. Anabella G. Valdez, a faculty member of the DMMMSU- South La Union Campus College of Agriculture. It began on June 16, 2022, and is expected to be completed on May 15, 2024. (Ronald Bustos)
