Bangus bone good for making polvoron

More livelihood groups are venturing into the making of snack foods out of milkfish bones.

Specifically, calcium-rich tinik ng bangus, which is usually fed to cats, is being used as ingredient in the making of polvoron and cookies.

Take the initiative of the Tula Talogtog Ubagan Livelihood Association (TTULA) composed of housewives, students, and farmers in Sto. Tomas, La Union.

For almost a year now, the association has been making polvoron and cookies out of powdered fishbones mixed with flour.

The Don Mariano Marcos Memorial State University (DMMMSU), whose campus in Sto Tomas town houses TTULA, is now studying the market for this product. (DMMMSU is a multicampus university in La Union whose seat of administration is the main campus in Bacnotan town.)

TTULA has been marketing its other products – deboned tinapa (smoked) or dinaing (dried) milkfish – in other parts of the country and the Middle East.

The project, as reported by Angela E. Zobnial of the Department of Agriculture-Bureau of Agricultural Research (DA-BAR), is a joint venture of TTULA, DMMMSU-Institute of Fisheries, and DA-Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR)-Region 1 with DA-Regional Field Unit I (RFU) Executive Director Nestor Domenden as head of the implementing team.

Director Juanito Rualo initiated technical training and demonstrations for the association’s member while DA-BFAR provided them with reading materials, deboning kits, and a chest freezer.

TTULA also makes bagoong (fish paste), a product which the Ilocos Region is famous for, with milkfish intestines as ingredients.

Research on making polvoron out of milkfish bones was first done by Dr. Laurentina Calmorin of the Northern Iloilo Polytechnic State College (NIPSC) in Estancia, Iloilo. Dr. Calmorin presented the results of her research at an R&D forum in Los Baños, Laguna, on Jan, 28, 2000.

Since then, the technology has drawn the interest of various snack food makers. — Rudy A. Fernandez