SEAFAST: Healthy food trend drives raw material reformulation technology

Jakarta (ANTARA) - The Head of the South East Asia Food and Agriculture Science & Technology (SEAFAST) Center at IPB, Puspo Edi Giriwono, stated that the increasing trend of consumer health awareness and demand for healthy food is the key driver behind food raw material reformulation technology. Food raw material reformulation technology is the process of redesigning processed food products by altering their composition or substituting base ingredients, with the aim of creating healthier products and responding to changes in market regulations. At a press conference for Food Ingredients (FI) Asia Indonesia 2026 in Jakarta on Thursday, Puspo said this technology is currently needed by the industry to meet market demand. “It requires knowledge or science to produce these ingredients, their production, then good processing methods, producing good products, right up to the formulation. So this science becomes the basis for developing products towards healthy food,” Puspo said. He explained that in the industrial sector, the healthy food consumption trend in Indonesia is growing at an average rate of 7.9 percent annually, in line with Indonesian consumers, especially Millennials and Gen Z, who are health-conscious and prioritise fresh, natural, and functional foods. Puspo noted that the public is increasingly reducing foods high in sugar, salt, and fat, so raw material reformulation technology is necessary to maintain auxiliary ingredients so they do not degrade easily from storage to heating, ensuring consumers still receive benefits when the product is finished. Reformulation also functions to adjust the flavour of raw ingredients into food that is safe and consumable, and suited to the tastes of the market where the product is sold. Furthermore, he also conveyed the need for transparency regarding any raw materials contained in a product to increase consumer trust. “The composition contained is important for consumers to know. Especially if, for example, the consumer has special needs, such as an allergy to certain foods, or if they adhere to certain values, for example Halal,” Puspo said. He stated that raw material traceability is also a part of the development of reformulation technology that is expected to be adopted by Indonesia to further increase consumer trust in the quality of Indonesian raw materials.