Seminar on food industries

JAKARTA (JP): In a bid to improve public nutrition during the economic crisis, the government, food experts and food-related companies will hold this month a two-day national seminar on food technology.

The seminar from Oct. 12 to Oct. 13 will focus on programs to empower small food industries and help them improve the nutrition value of their products.

Food experts grouped under the Indonesian Association of Food Technologists (Patpi) stressed the importance of technical guidance to help about 500,000 cottage food industries.

Patpi said previous efforts to improve the sector were unsuccessful due to a lack of entrepreneurship on the part of small producers.

Patpi secretary Tien Muchtadi said the seminar would be held in cooperation with food companies PT Indofood Sukses Makmur, PT Monsanto, PT Inti Boga Sejahtera, PT Bogasari Flour Mill, PT Sentra Pertiwi Bahari and PT Hero Supermarket.

Research works and technical papers on food technology will be discussed at the seminar. (06)