Bersagi, High Calcium Rice: Creation of IPB Students
Indonesia is the fourth most populous country in the world. On the other hand, the nutritional adequacy of Indonesia's population is still low. The number of people lacking both macro and micro nutrient intake is still high. Lack of micronutrients may occur due to lack of calcium intake. This can be a major trigger for osteoporosis. Bad habits such as rarely drink milk become one of the causes. Milk consumption in Indonesia is the lowest in Southeast Asia. The calcium intake rate per day of Indonesian society only reaches 30 percent of the recommended needs of the World Health Organization (WHO).
Seeing this condition, three students of Bogor Agricultural University (IPB) tried to make processed staple foods with high calcium. This product they named as Bersagi, which stands for high calcium rice (Beras berkalsium tinggi). They are Gito Heryan, Murtezha Hadijaya el Hasyibi, and Aditya Pratama Rico. "We see a lack of community interest in milk. On the other hand, Indonesia is very identical to the staple food of rice. Many people say they have not eaten if they have not eaten rice. So came the idea to create high-calcium rice products, "said Gito, Head of Team Bersagi.
Gito and his friends made Bersagi with rice-based, sorghum, and soy extract as a source of calcium. "We made Bersagi with four different formulas to see which formula is the most popular in the society."
According to Gito, innovation of high calcium rice can meet the needs of daily calcium through the activities of daily staple food consumption. "Seeing the habits of people who eat at least twice a day in every day, with calcium content available in Bersagi, the society then can fulfilling the daily calcium needs only through the consumption of staple food at home," he explained.
With guidance from Drs. Moh. Nur Indro, M.Sc, Lecturer in Physics Department, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences (FMIPA) IPB, Bersagi become one of Student Creativity Program for Research Area Exact Year 2018. The research title is "Bersagi: High Calcium Rice With Added Soy Extract by Maseration Method as a Solution to Improve the Quality of Nutrition In the Society of Indonesia ".
Bersagi is something new because it uses different raw materials than usual. This team managed to create a product in just one trial. This indicates that the formula carried by the team is suitable to be applied on a larger scale. Plan for the future, Gito and his friends hope to develop Bersagi to industrial scale, so it can be one of the potential economic source. "We also hope to work with the community in the fulfillment of raw materials for making Bersagi as a means to drive the wheels of the economy," said Gito. (RYS)
