Overview of DOST’s Food Innovation Program

Food manufacturing is an important industry in any economy. It adds value to livestock and agricultural resources, transforming them into products for immediate consumption. For the food manufacturing industry to thrive, constant innovation is vital within a wide range of activities that translate ideas into useful new products, processes, and services. 

For the food sector, there are innovations in various sectors such as sourcing of raw materials, processing, packaging, as well as marketing and distribution systems. In the Philippines, where the majority of food manufacturers are still MSMEs, generating new concepts and creating new products often come at a very high risk that is usually too much for these micro and small entrepreneurs. The biggest hurdle is gaining access to processing facilities and technologies. 

In 2015, the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) established Food Innovation Centers (FICs) all over the country in support of the local food manufacturing industry. Each FIC houses five DOST-developed technologies: vacuum packaging machine, water retort,     vacuum fryer, spray dryer, and freeze dryer, all of which contribute to prolonging product shelf-life and preserving nutritious content. 

Since 2017, DOST-PCIEERD has invested P260M to support projects under the Food Innovation Program. The end goal is to develop sustainable and globally competitive food products with FICs as the leading science and technology Food Innovation Hubs. Several products have already been developed under this project, ranging from emergency food (like fried corn grits meals and smoked fish rice meals) to ingredients for long storage (such as carabao milk powder and taro flour).

Currently, there are low investments in research and development, technology transfer, and upgrading. The food manufacturing industry continues to be dependent on imported raw materials, and technologies are badly in need of improvement and innovations. Because of this, there are gaps in the local manufacturers’ ability to deliver consistently at the required level of quality in terms of nutritional needs and food safety. 

According to the Food Innovation Program roadmap for 2022-2040, DOST-PCIEERD is allocating more than P3B for this project. This will fund the development of sustainable Food Innovation Facilities and their continued maintenance and upscaling throughout the years. It is also meant to support data gathering and research needed by food processing technologies and facilities, as well as food industry partners who will need these for their own improvement. The end goal is to be at par with the world’s industry leaders offering globally competitive food products.