(Inspired by @changemakers #nutrients4all Ashoka Changemakers Nutrients for All: Vitality for People and the Planet http://www.changemakers.com/nutrientsforall)
For Indonesian household in the 90’s, home cooking is a norm for most urban family. Eating out is considered, even in the limited available fast food chains, is considered expensive. Even processed food such as the array of supermarket frozen food is considered expensive for middle income group. However, 2 decades later things have dramatically changed. For most family, particularly young ones, cooking has become an expensive process. Due to the economy of scale and the time required to prepare it, cooking is less preferable or even not affordable for urban Indonesian households of all economic class.
Cooking is a skill of food processing that human has learned probably since the advent of fire, to improve the digestion and taste of food. With the advent of industrialization and/or modernization, cooking slowly becomes something of the past, as opposed to the modern food industry. Food industry with its massive production scale is now dominating over household scale production alias home cooking. Processed food, be it in form of ready to eat combo from restaurant-chain or instant food in supermarket alley is now part of every family’s kitchen. Thus, kitchen is shrinking into pantry with microwave oven, and the term “cooking” is reduced to the extent of reheating microwavable frozen food.
In fact, home cooking is a high investment. One has to buy all sorts of appliances and utensils (rice cooker, stove, wok, pan, pots, and all its paraphernalia), plus pay the energy consumed (LPG gas or electricity). In preparation one have to do grocery shopping, while post-production, loads of pans, china, and silverware are waiting in the sink. In addition, in order to produce nutritious and tasty food, some degree of cooking skill is required.
So, why bother when with less than Rp 20.000 you can get a complete meal set (e.g. rice, chicken, some veggies, and cold drink) at a nearby food court or food stall. Plenty of menu options are available to satiate our appetite, from breakfast to dinner, appetizer to dessert. For those who prefer staying at home, varieties of 24 hrs delivery services can be dialed or ordered online. Frozen or instant food (instant noodle being the most popular by far) is available in minimart, supermarket, or even small warung nearby. In many residential areas one can also found food cart selling all sorts of food, yelling (as Obama fondly recalled in his speech during his visit to Indonesia) “sate” (satay), “bakso” (meatball), or “nasi goreng” (fried rice).
Perhaps a good analogy of this phenomenon is the way fashion industry grows. In grandma’s generation, it’s almost a must for everyone in the family (at least every girl) to be familiar with knitting, sewing, and mending clothes. Right now, most of us rely on garment industry or artisan tailor for thing we wear, and seeing the trend perhaps soon for things we eat. Knowledge of food production is no longer of the common people, and instead becoming exclusive to those of the food industry.
This brings another consequence. Though from business perspective the prospect is seemingly bright, some considerations arise from health and nutrition standpoint. Business interest is driven mostly by sales and profit, which in food industry translates into taste and look, and much less into the nutrient content. This means additive loaded food processing that would emphasize improvement of color and texture of food to serve the majority of less aware consumers. Shelf life is also of importance, so preservatives and preserving methods are in use, the cost of which on health in the long term is still debatable.
As the knowledge body on food production is seized by the industry, which is then developed in favor synthetic appearance to maximize profit, and the demand is rising due to people’s shifting role from producer (to some extent) into pure consumer, the problem began. Malnutrition, hidden hunger, tooth decay, obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease, are among the consequences. And babies, children, and youth are the most at risk, as their age is when nutrition intake matters most.
While it’s quite difficult to reverse the trend, the challenge now lies on how to raise public’s awareness, vis-à-vis the massive marketing invasion of corporate giants through various media channel. Once a trivial subject, home economics education might have never been as important in (re-)building the knowledge of food production among the public. Not necessarily to make everyone a good chef at home, but to ensure that everyone has the basic knowledge of good food and process, in order to be more conscious of the choice they made.
On the industry side, standards need to be developed and enforced. Though sounds easy the effort would be a long haul, considering the range of players in food industry, from raw materials to meal, from both formal and informal sector, also local and international. An integrated standard is needed to ensure certain hygiene and nutrition quality. However, beyond that, guidelines and supporting facilities should be developed to ensure implementation. Included here is capacity building for informal sector player coupled with financing mechanism for improvement.
Do you have your own view or experience? Know anyone working on innovative solution for nutrition, health, and wellness challenge? Let’s share and start the discussion.
