DOST partners with pasalubong leader to boost student nutrition
Partnership for Healthier Snacks
BACOLOD CITY – The Department of Science and Technology (DOST) has formed a partnership with a well-known local pasalubong company to create fortified and fun snacks aimed at Filipino students in the Visayas region. This collaboration was highlighted during the HANDA Pilipinas 2025 Visayas leg, where DOST and Merczi announced their joint efforts to produce products for the Department of Education’s (DepEd) school-based feeding programs in Negros, Samar, and the Davao Region.
The initiative focuses on providing healthier snack options for students. These include nutribuns and cookies that are fortified with vitamins and minerals, brown rice bars containing dried nuts and fruits, high-protein crackers, coco biscuits, rice monggo curls, and iron-fortified rice. These snacks are designed to support student nutrition while still being enjoyable and appealing.
Merczi is a prominent food manufacturer based in Bacolod City, established in 1995. It offers a wide range of pasalubong products throughout the country, including “piaya,” a beloved local delicacy. The company's Research and Development Manager, Maria Alicia Beba, explained how they have adapted their production methods to make their products healthier.
“We thought of baking it instead of deep-frying because it was difficult to dry… There were a lot of uncontrollable points. [With] oven-drying, the product is as is… There’s no additional fat or use of oil. Aside from [it being] the healthier option, the shelf life is longer because the more oil there is, it becomes rancid faster and spoilage comes faster,” she said.
Merczi ensures that all ingredients used in their products come from Filipino suppliers nationwide. Their production process follows the DOST’s strict recipes to guarantee that the snacks are both safe and healthy. The DOST’s Food and Nutrition Research Institute and Merczi currently produce around 30,000 packs of iron-fortified rice daily at a cost of P22 per pack. These are distributed to local government units and the DepEd.
Their collaboration has also led to the development of other healthier snack options such as brown rice energy bars, rice monggo curls, nutribuns, and crackers. Merczi is also exploring the possibility of producing ready-to-eat meals and pre-prepared sauces in partnership with the DOST.
The company’s fortified rice is produced at a 10-hectare facility in Bacolod City, capable of manufacturing 1,500 kilograms of fortified rice per day. Beba shared how the partnership began:
“We are one of the biggest bakeries here in Negros… Since they saw that we have the capacity, place and resources, they invested for us to produce fortified rice. From the fortified rice, since the machine is capable of doing other products, we maximized it and maximized all of what we can do with the machine.”
Merczi is also looking to increase its production capacity to meet the demand for 5 million food items in a school year. However, commercialization of these fortified snacks is still in the early stages.
“Maximizing production capacity, overtime, if there’s a need to inject more people, if 24/7 is needed… I think we can do it [until the end of the school year in March]... For the commercialization, as for now, we can’t do it yet,” Beba added.
