“Saredang Biscuits” Helps to Improve the Nutrient for Indonesian Babies
Childhood malnutrition especially under nutrition is one of the most frequent causes of child morbidity and mortality. Age 0-24 months is a period of rapid growth and development that is often referred to as the golden period once the critical period, as it determines the quality of children in the future. The Golden time can be realized if infants and children obtain appropriate nutrition for optimal growth and development and can turn into a crucial period when nutritional deficiencies. Like the rest of our body, our brain changes with each passing year, and the development of the largest brain tissue occurs at such age. Nutrients have greater effects on brain development, they regulate brain development during fetal and early postnatal life. It is important to pay attention to these nutritional deficiencies, as each nutrient plays important role for the development of the brain. According to Gunawan et al. (2011) nutritional deficiencies at age 0-24 months will cause brain cell loss around 15-20% and brain development will slow down after 3-year-old child.
Meanwhile, according to Black et al. (2008) the prevalence of stunting of children under five (37%) in Indonesia is higher than the prevalence average rate of stunting children in the world (26%). Stunting reflects chronic undernutrition during the most critical periods of growth due to feeding is not in accordance with nutritional needs. Efforts to decrease the prevalence of stunting of children under five should be taken into account as it is the precious period of infant growth, especially at the age of 0-24 months in order to become a quality generation in the future.
Breastmilk or infant formula provide all the nutrients required by an infant for the first 6 months of life and continue to be an important nutritional source until 12 months and beyond. Breastmilk will provide 100% of the baby's nutritional needs. But after 6 months, the baby's nutritional needs continue to increase so that it can only meet 60-70% of infant needs. Early introduction of solids can displace nutrient-dense breastmilk or formula. This can result
in inadequate nutrients and energy for growth. Therefore, at the age of 6-24 months the quality of breast milk should be given to meet the nutritional needs and its development.
Realizing the importance of food sufficiency for infant, a group of students of Bogor Agricultural University (IPB), under the sponsorships of Program Kreativitas Mahasiswa (PKM Student Creativity Program) produced “Saredang Biscuits”. The group concsisted of Ismail Shaleh, Diah Dwi Putri, Diyah Puji Astuti, Romadhony Ardiansyah and Agus Pratama Damanik.
The “Saredang Biscuits” (Sago, Red Palm Oil, and dangke) created by the PKM group IPB is the innovation of local-made foodstuffs for the improvement of infant nutrition in Indonesia. They tried to provide a solution for the provision of baby nutrition at the age of 6-24 months and to increase the development of brain cell.
"The products we produced utilized local food as the main raw material to replace 100% wheat flour (imported material). It is home made, and have a relatively higher nutrient content," Ismali said.
The “Saredang Biscuits” is rich in vitamin A (equivalent to blue capsule vitamin A), vitamin E (derived from palm oil), carbohydrates (amylopectin sago), and protein (with the help of papain enzyme during the process of making cheese dangke). They are digested more easily.
In addition in improving the diet of children in the context of improving the nutritional status of infants in Indonesia, this innovation also exploits the potential of local food in Indonesia. They utilize local basic ingredients such as sago, red palm oil (red palm oil) and dangke in the production of “Saredang Biscuits”. "We continue to develop this product to obtain the best results, and hopefully will be selected to be the program to promote IPB in the 30th PIMNAS arena," said Ismail. (Wied)
