Bapanas Director of Food and Nutrition Awareness Nita Yulianis stated that food and nutrition security had always been a national strategic issue, as fulfilling food needs is the right of every citizen.
"Food fulfillment is the right of every citizen whose quantity and quality must be guaranteed, safe and nutritious to achieve healthy, intelligent, active, and productive human resources," Yulianis remarked during the Focus Group Discussion on Functional Food to Support Food and Nutrition Security here on Tuesday.
She explained that one of the food categories that has the potential to support food security and nutrition is functional food.
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She noted that functional food developed in line with the shift in people's food consumption that not only prioritizes fulfilling food consumption but also focuses on the function of the food they consume and its benefits for improving the quality of health and treatment for certain health conditions.
"Indonesia is one of the countries with the greatest biodiversity in the world. Thus, the potential for functional food sources is quite large to be developed through research, study, processing, and utilization," Yulianis remarked.
She noted that Bapanas works along with all parties to strengthen the food ecosystem from upstream to downstream. Collaboration is the main key in carrying out these efforts since solving food and nutrition problems requires the commitment of all elements of society.
"We are collaborating with relevant ministries and institutions, cross-sector regional apparatus organizations in 38 provinces and 514 districts and cities, as well as involving Food SOEs and Regional Food Enterprises, Food Task Force, private sector, associations, academic community and experts to achieve food development targets," Yulianis stated.
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Translator: Farhan Arda Nugraha, Katriana
Editor: Yuni Arisandy Sinaga
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