Jakarta, 23 June 2022 – PT AJINOMOTO INDONESIA (Ajinomoto) held an online event (webinar) in order to improve nutritional status, as well as improve the Clean & Healthy Lifestyle (PHBS) of children and adolescents in Indonesia, as well as to implement the School Lunch Program ( SLP) to more Islamic Boarding School (pesantren). Ajinomoto collaborated with the Department of Community Nutrition, Bogor Agricultural University (IPB) and the Indonesian Ministry of Religion, providing information sharing and experiences in implementing the SLP pilot project. The event, which took place online on June 20, 2022, which was attended by 60 representatives of pesantren in the West Java region.

Also attending the webinar, representatives from the Ministry of Religion, Dr. H. Basnan Said MAG – Head of Sub-Directorate of Islamic Boarding School Education. He said that "it is important for all of us to consume Halal and Thoyib food. For that we thank you for the initiation from Ajinomoto which provides the opportunity for santri so that they can feel the same nutrition as children who study outside but live at home. . As we know, most of the santri come from villages-from the village and if we talk about the problem of fulfilling nutrition, there may be something that is not fulfilled”.

“In the pilot project at that time, we set a target to reduce the prevalence of anemia status of students in Islamic boarding schools through the provision of balanced nutritious food and nutrition education. After we provided a menu that was high in iron content (such as chicken liver rendang,) and a vegetable menu that was easily and deliciously cooked using our products, the students started to eat more. As a result, we were able to reduce the incidence of anemia by 8% among students at the Darul Falah Agricultural Islamic Boarding School in Bogor, and 20.9% in the Darussalam Islamic Boarding School in Bogor. Based on this success story, we want to continue to contribute to addressing child nutrition problems in Indonesia," said Grant Senjaya, Head of Public Relations Dept. - PT AJINOMOTO INDONESIA.

“Through this SLP socialization, we want more Islamic boarding schools to implement this program. The hope is that during this period, the participants of the webinar are enthusiastic about registering their Islamic boarding schools. Furthermore, we together with the SLP Team from the Bogor Agricultural Institute (IPB) will conduct observations and selections to select 12 Islamic boarding schools that if they meet all the requirements to implement SLP in their respective Islamic boarding schools, "he continued.

According to Dr. Rimbawan, Lecturer at the Department of Community Nutrition of IPB as well as the head of the SLP project, the SLP guidebook that has been made is not only useful for students in Islamic boarding schools, but also useful for teaching staff in Islamic boarding schools who implement it.

“Together with Ajinomoto and the Indonesian Ministry of Religion, we compiled the SLP guide into 3 books. The first book contains a nutrition education module in Islamic boarding schools which is useful for providing teaching staff with basic knowledge about nutrition and health for children and adolescents. The second book contains a module for providing balanced nutritious meals in Islamic boarding schools. The third book contains a collection of recipes and application options for a delicious, balanced, nutritious menu," said Dr. Rimbawan.

“Previously we selected 6 pesantren as pilot projects, and this year we are holding an SLP program socialization to more pesantren. Based on our observations, Islamic boarding schools are educational institutions that have made a lot of progress, but in terms of food, nutrition, and health, they have not received proportional attention. In general, students stay in Islamic boarding schools, therefore we assess that if the condition of food, nutrition and health is good, it will have a huge impact on increasing learning achievement," he continued.

In this webinar session, Ajinomoto also conveyed about the Bijak Garam campaign which was presented by Darma Suhandi, Product Marketing Manager of Horeka Dept. – PT AJINOMOTO INDONESIA. "In line with the campaign of the Indonesian Ministry of Health, regarding the importance of a salt, sugar and fat diet. Through the Bijak Garam campaign, which we are activating, we want to educate the public about the importance of a low-salt diet and invite Indonesian families to live healthier lives by reducing the intake or use of salt in food processing,” said Darma.

"MSG contains less sodium than table salt in general. Only by adding 1 teaspoon of salt plus teaspoon of MSG AJI-NO-MOTO® can reduce sodium levels by 30% but maintain the umami taste and deliciousness of the food. Well, with one of the products from Horeka Dept., namely AJI-NO-MOTO® PLUS, for large-scale cooking use it will be very economical. Because it can add umami levels to dishes and is certainly stronger than regular MSG. With a higher level of umami taste, it uses less (¼) than regular MSG, so it is more cost-effective for production," he concluded at the end of the conversation.

Ajinomoto not only continues to present deliciousness through its products, but also has a goal to improve the welfare of the people in Indonesia as a solution provider company for food and health problems. For Islamic boarding schools who want to get this SLP Guidebook, they can fill out a form that can be downloaded from the link: tinyurl.com/pendaftaranmodulslp