Tropical Medley Energy Bar

Abstract

INTRODUCTION

Poor nutrition continues to be a persistent problem among Filipino children. Incidence of poor nutrition is prevalent in the underprivileged sector of both rural and urban communities. A diet that lacks essential nutrients often results in being underweight. Through the advancements in the field of human nutrition, nutrient deficiencies in children and adolescents can now be easily treated. Finding cost-effective ways are also feasible through the available knowledge in nutritional qualities of relevant foods and ingredients that satisfies the lack of vital food components in the daily diet of children and adolescents. In the public school setting, simply feeding underweight children through the school's feeding program is insufficient. This study attempts to explore the possibility of weight management by formulating a recipe of ready-to-eat therapeutic food made from an assembly of inexpensive, local, and highly nutritious ingredients.

METHODS

This study is a Science Investigatory Project, which falls under life science. To evaluate the product, a sensory evaluation assessment using the 5-point Likert scale was used to assess the energy bar. The respondents were selected through random sampling and the computed percentage were determined to interpret the overall acceptability of the product.

RESULTS

The final product was evaluated through sensory evaluation and the overall acceptability of the product was also assessed. In terms of appearance, the 45% strongly agreed and 55% agreed that the product was visually appealing. In terms of color, 60% strongly agreed that the color and assembly of ingredients in the energy bar was pleasing to the eye. For aroma, 70% of the respondents strongly agreed that energy bar had a pleasing aroma. In terms of texture, 60% agreed that the texture of the product coordinates with visual perception. As for overall acceptability, 70% of the respondents strongly agreed that the energy bar was highly acceptable product to eat.

DISCUSSIONS

Based on the acceptability test conducted, the product, Tropical Medley Energy Bar was highly acceptable in terms of appearance, color, aroma, and texture. All respondents agreed that this product indeed could provide the necessary energy needed by an individual to perform his/her tasks within a day due to its high calorie content.