A "healthy" ice cream with fat content six times lower than commercial brands has been developed by the Food and Nutrition Research Institute (FNRI) of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST).
"The fat content of the developed ice cream, in vanilla flavor, is only 1.7 percent compared to the 10.9 percent fat of commercial brands," the FNRI said.
Regular "premium" and "super premium" ice creams have higher fat content between 13 and 17 percent, reports said.
The FNRI said growing concern to reduce and prevent lifestyle related diseases has prompted the agency to develop the low fat and low sugar ice cream.
"FNRI’s new technologies on frozen food products are aimed to satisfy many Filipinos’ cravings for healthy food choices," the agency said.
The prevalence of diabetes among Filipino adults is 4.6 percent, or five out of 100 are prone to the disease, the FNRI said.
Based on the 2003-2004 National Nutrition and Health Survey, the prevalence of hypercholesterolemia or high blood cholesterol among Filipino adults based on total cholesterol of equal or more than 240 milligrams per deciliter increased significantly from four percent in 1998 to 8.5 percent in 2003. — Helen Flores