Face to Face

An interview with Dr. Priscilla Sanchez, on

Non-traditional Coconut Food Products

lambanog. flavored candied nata. With this issue COCOINFO International (Cl) commences a new col­ coconut-filled white soft cheese, umn "Face to Face". It features an interview with a leading personality in coconut water vinegar, coconut the coconut industry more particularly in the processing/marketing sec­ yoghurt, nutri-beverage (cultured tors For this issue Cl interviewed Dr Priscilla Sanchez, Professor In­ stitute of Food Science and Technology,«University of the Philippines milk), coco wine and coco cham­ Los Banos College, Laguna, Philippines pagne, coconut residue and bio- enzymatic coconut oil extraction process. C l ‘Dr. Sanchez, as one of the Most of the indigenous coco­ leading food scientists who is nut food products arc produced in CI*What prompted you to take working in the coconut sector, the household as cottage industries. this initiative? how long have you been involved The methods involved in its manu­ PS*My involvement on researches in this field? facture are usually done through trial and error and based on the on non-traditional products from PS •My research activities on co­ processes that are handed down coconut was inspired by the late conut started in 1971 specifically from generation to generation Dr. Julian A. Banzon. a well known on nata dc coco, tuba (coconut wine wherein improvements are based on scientist on the chemistry of coco­ or toddy) and lambanog (distilled the experience of the makers. Our nut. Dr. Banzon's projection was coconut spirit). researches were geared on under­ that the researches on the diversi­ standing the microbiological and fication of coconut utilization not only for food but also for indus­ CI*Professor Sanchez, you have biochemical changes that happened during processing of the specific trial applications will make a sub­ been very much involved with the stantial contribution for the development of a number of non- product and devices methods for the process improvement not only countn 's economy. traditional coconut food prod­ The most popular research ucts. What were you aiming at? for the uniform high quality of product but also on the economic areas then were those that were the PS •Our researches on non-tradi­ viability of the process. Attention priorities set by foreign funding tional coconut food products in­ was also given to the stability of agencies Research activities were volved several aspects dealing on the products at different sets of con­ focussed on legumes (e g. soy­ the improvement of processes and beans) such that many researchers ditions. product development as well as the have to compete among each other quality control of the products. on topics that were interrelated if During the technology develop­ CI*Can you cite some examples? not similar Although coconut re­ ment. the requirements for its adop­ PS •Some notable examples of the search was not the trend. Dr. tion in the small-scale industries Banzon emphasized that coconut is developed technology of non-tradi­ outweighed those for the large in­ our major product so that its avail­ tional coconut food products are as dustries. ability as a raw material for pro- follows: Nata de coco, tuba and

30 COCOINFO INTERNATIONAL VOL.2, NO. I J995 cessed products should be ex­ should be freely made available to ta de coco in the shops and restau­ ploited. This message enticed me them especially to the small scale rants resulting to the down surge to devote my researches on what­ enterprises. My experience with my of the price and loss of interest of ever products can be made out of patented process was that it has the consumers. Problems on the coconut. very limited usage due to the re­ variability of the product quality quirements attached in the adoption were also pointed out. CI*How are these products ac­ of the technology. Only those with The lessons learned from our cepted by customers, local and capital to operate a large scale pro­ experience with nata de coco should abroad? duction can avail of it. serve us guidelines in marketing the non-traditional food products from PS*Among the developed non-tra- CI*Quality of food products is coconut. Top and foremost is the ditional coconut food products, maintenance of uniform high qual­ those that were locally accepted assuming much significance now. ity standards for the products to were the soft cheese, yoghurt, cul­ How do these small enterprises enable them to compete with other tured milk, macaroons, polvoroon, assure quality standards espe­ products of similar form. and flour. These products, however, cially to a sophisticated export are not yet marketed abroad but market? some of the foreigners who have PS •Most of the small scale enter­ CI*Do you plan to develop other tasted them showed approval for prises have no capability to set-up products from coconut? their acceptability. At present, the quality control laboratories unlike PS •Currently. I am doing research products that were both accepted the big enterprises. Research insti­ on the "Developmental Studies on by the local and foreign market tutions like the Institute of Food the Alcoholic Beverages (Wine and were nata de coco, vinegar, Science and Technology at the Uni­ Champagne-type) from coconut lambanog and sweetened bars. versity of the Philippines at Los water funded by the Philippine Banos, where I belong, extends Coconut Authority (PCA). We en­ CI*M ost of these seem to be support by evaluating the products visioned to optimize the process­ small scale enterprises. How was and giving technical assistance to ing conditions for these alcoholic the technology transferred to improve its quality to conform with beverages using fabricated equip­ them? the standards of the buyers. ment and gadgets for large scale production. Marketing research is PS*Technology transfer was made also a component of the project. possible by the efforts of several CI# Nata de coco, for example, Also, I would like to optimize government agencies and NGO's in a way has revolutionized the the conditions for bench and pilot through seminars, workshops, vid­ Philippine coconut industry. How scale production of coconut oil eos and newsprint. Technical assis­ do you assess the future prospects through the wet process by fermen­ tance to the small scale industries for these products especially with tation. also played a vital role in the adop­ regards to marketing? One area that I feel should be tion of the technology. While the PS •Nata de coco exportation has given attention in the future is the technologies are available, their full experienced a phenomenal growth full utilization of copra meal and adoption cannot be achieved due to in 1993. This can be attributed to residue (from wet process) for food. lack of government support on the the popularization of nata dc coco With our current drive for improv­ financial and marketing aspects. in Japan that created a boom in ing copra quality, food utilization consumption The demand for nata of the copra meal will be an im­ de coco in Japan, however, started CI*How many of them have portant area for research. been patented? to trickle down in the early 1994. One of the reasons for this as ex­ P S #Patenting a discovery' is one CI»Dr. Sanchez, thank you very pressed by Japanese importers, way of protecting inventions. In my m uch for sharing your knowledge traders, processors, consumers and case, however, the technologies I and experience with us and our researchers was the marketing developed were done using the readers □ strategy was not fully studied. people's taxes so that I feel that it There w as an oversupply of na­

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