Food Explore 9 Presents 18 Healthy Food Innovation

The annual event of Food Technology UPH, Food Explore, was held again for the 9^th time. During this event, 18 Healthy Food Innovation Products were exhibited in Food Explore 9, November 2-4, 2016. This year?s theme for Food Explore is ?Food Quality Assurance?, which aims to encourage young generation to produce food with the right way and a safe process, in order to assure the quality of the product. Food Explore 9 was held to raise the awareness of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (UMKM) towards their food products.

18 Innovations which was created by the Food Technology students of UPH was exhibited in the ?Innovation House? of Food Explore 9. These innovations were created by students as an application of the lessons they have learned during classes, combined with information from a variety of sources. In general, these works were made by students from the 5^th semester and up. They started with a proposal which will be reviewed by lecturers, and if they managed to pass, their proposal will undergo further processes. These innovation works could be made by groups or individual.

?The innovations which have been exhibited must fulfill the established standards. These standards include production, hygiene and sanitation, quality of raw material as well as compatibility with the standard and regulations.  Just like the theme of Food Explore 9, the preferred raw materials are local products,? said Ferdian Hendrawan, Head of the Food Explore 9 Committee.

 One of the food innovations in Food Explore 9 was ?Jaipong? by Gabriella Prameswari and Stella Meiska. Jaipong is food sprinkles, made from banana blossom and pohpohan leaves. This food sprinkles is very high in nutrition, because it consists of mineral, calcium, protein and fiber. Another interesting innovation is Sumol , a breadfruit-flour-based cimol, created by Gary Winata. This product has higher nutrition than the usual cimol because breadfruit has dietary fiber, calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphor and potassium.

There were many other innovations, both unique food and drinkssuch as Celedri (cendol seledri ? cendol celery), Cookies from arrowroot tubers flour and katuk leaves, Pletok Beer Jelly Drink, Graphalmon Ice Cream (purple leaves and god?s crown plant extract), Semrawut (semprong snack made from red barley flour), Jackie Nugget (made from lentils and jackfruit), Kumis (a candy made from kemuning leaves extract) and BAI Cookies (a snack made from tuber flour and mushroom flour).

 During the event, guests could taste free food and drink samples from the booths in ?Innovation House?. For those who are interested to buy these innovations, packaged products were also available in affordable prices and of course, this opportunity only happens on Food Explore 9.

The Dean of Faculty of Science and Technology (FaST) UPH, Prof. Dr. Manlian Ronald A. Simanjuntak, ST., MT., D.Min., really welcomed this annual event and also hopes that this event could be an initiator for further development of both national and international Food Technology model.

Ir. W. Donald R. Pokatong, M.Sc., Ph.D., as the Head of Food Technology Department, also conveyed his appreciation towards students and all participants during the opening event of Food Explore 9.

?I hope that every event in Food Explore 9, starting from Innovation House Exhibition, National Food Debate for High School Students, Conditional Innovation for High School Students, up to Food Quality Assurance Seminar, can enrich knowledge, practical knowledge as well as both hard and soft skills of all the participants,? Donald stated. (rh)

Booths inside ?Innovation House? Food Explore 9, (left-right) Stand Jackie Nugget and Jaipong