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| UMM students make innovative baby food products. (Photo: Special) |
Based on the results of survei status gizi indonesia (SSGI) (trans: the Indonesian Nutrition Status Survey) conducted by the Indonesian Ministry of Health, the prevalence of stunting in Indonesia will continue to decrease at 21.6 percent in 2022. The decrease in stunting rates in Indonesia is good news, but it does not mean that it can make calm. Because, when referring to WHO standards related to stunting prevalence, it must be less than 20%.
Looking at this condition, a group of students from the Food Technology Science study program at the University of Muhammadiyah Malang (UMM), through the program kreativitas mahasiswa (PKM) (trans: student creativity program), made an innovative baby food product. The food was taken as biscuits made from jackfruit seed flour and cowpea. Fakhri Ahmad Wafi, one of the team members, said the main problem of stunting is a lack of nutritional intake, including a lack of protein and calories.
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"From many studies, jackfruit seeds itself does have carbohydrate content. Even with cowpea, which has a high protein content of 24.4 grams. Both ingredients are substituted into flour which we turn into biscuits," said Fakhri.
Fakhri added that the selection of jackfruit seeds was not without reason. He and his team saw that a lot of jackfruit seed waste was still thrown away. Fakhri also said that his team's stunting targets are babies in Indonesia aged 0-6 months and 6-12 months who need complementary feeding.
"Because our focus is on the babies, the products we make are biscuits as complementary foods for breastfeeding. These biscuits can also be processed into porridge. In addition, the biscuits themselves can be a food as well as a toy to stimulate motor skills in babies or children. Alhamdulillah, the PKM-RE that we are currently making has received funding from Kemdikbud," said Fakhri.
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Furthermore, the student who originally came from Surabaya explained that the jackfruit seed and cowpea flour that had been processed into biscuits would then be tested for proximate levels to identify the content of nutrients such as protein, carbohydrates, fat and fiber in a food substance from feed or food ingredients. In addition, organoleptic testing is used and finally tested on infants and pregnant women.
"Hopefully the products we make from this PKM-RE can help reduce the prevalence of stunting in Indonesia, thus it can create and bring forth a healthy generation of nations from healthy babies and mothers," Fakhri hoped.
The development of this product must be connected to the cooperation of other team members, including Herlina Diah ayu Rosita, Zurotun Nasifah, Audina Aura Sarie, and Wahyu Amalia. In addition, the food technology student group also received direct support and guidance from UMM Food Technology lecturer, Prof. Dr. Ir. Hj Noor Harini, MS. (put/*zak/wil)
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