ON FOOD fORTI - DOH Central Library - Department of Health

acquainted with the methodologies you
will work them out and be driven by
the' knowledge that these are very
important. factors in the growth of our
nation and that you must do your part.
Let us find the niches where we can
fit in. For instance, in processing different
foods we may find certain places where
we can promote vitamin' A., There may
be, other products in which it is easier
to promoteiodine, andstillotherproducts
in which we can promote iron. Let us
get these niches and work outwith the
authoritieswherewe feelare the particular
niches for our particular products. And
in the end, 'I believe that we can work
it out.
As much of our attention has been
placed I'm salt. 1would like to challenge
our food manufacturers who use salt ­
practically all of us use salt - asking them
to consider that in striving for excellence,
competitivenessandquality, we mustlook
forward to trying to use at all times the
best quality available ill the ingredients
that we use. Ifwe can convince ourselves
on this we will come to the conclusion
that the best way to start achieving high
quality is to use high quality salts. And
fortunately, we have enough
manufacturers of salt in the Philippines
who are world competitive. Let us start
A Report on Food, Fortification 53
. '. .
quality improvement through better salt,
and 1 hope that we can find our way
to using not only bettersalt hutalsoiodized
salt. ' Let us start with quality sugar or
quality salt which may give us a chance
to promote iodine.
The other niche that 1 can see in
probably all of the elements that we are
promoting is in the sauces. The Filipino
diet is quite dependent on sauces, red,
salty' or any other kind.' 'So let us see'
if.we can get some of.these elements in
our' sauces. For one thing the unit cost
of a sauce is usually higher than the unit
cost of, say,sardines so. maybe we can
afford it. It may be against our health
. policies but 1don't think we can get away
from "patis", although people say "patis"
is not good for those with high blood'
pressure. What 1 am saying is let us
find the proper niches for our foods and
see if we can incorporate our campaign
against these deficiencies,
Let me end this meeting by saying
thank..you for coming and participating
in this activity. Your attendance to this
meeting speaks for itself. Thanks too to
the organizersofthis activity. Restassured
, we will support the goal of eradicating
micronutrientmalnutritionin the country.
As the theme says, indeed, the food"
industryisyour"Katulongsa Pagsulong".