Quezon City – On November 29, 2019, the National Nutrition Council (NNC) MIMAROPA Region conducted the reorganization meeting of the MIMAROPA Regional Bantay Asin Task Force (RBATF) for the implementation of the National Salt Iodization Program (NSIP). Member agencies and representatives from DA, BFAR, PNP, DOST, PPA, DepEd, PIA and DOH attended the meeting, each agency having a big role on disseminating and implementing the ASIN Law in the region.
NPC Eileen Blanco expressed her gratitude towards the attendees and gave insights on the importance of the Republic Act no. 8172 and an overview of the meeting. NPC Blanco added that with this meeting, it will help to revive the National Salt Iodization Program from the region down to the barangays.
NO II Bianca Estrella discussed the 2018 Expanded National Nutrition Survey Result regarding the Iodine Status in the Philippines which conducted by the FNRI-DOST. According the 2018 ENNS Result, there was a good iodine status among the general population. For pregnant women, for Median Urinary Iodine Concentration, they only got 121 for ENNS 2018 which is a less than the standard of ≥150. While for proportion with Urinary Iodine of <50mcg/L shows 2 out of 5 lactating mothers were iodine deficient. It has a big impact when it comes to the first 1000 days development of the child which added by NPC Blanco.
NO III Edzell Arcinue gave a brief discussion on PPAN 2017-2022 and where the ASIN Law was anchored. The salt with iodine program was under the Mandatory Food Fortification, one of the nutrition-specific programs of PPAN 2017-2022. According to RA 8172, the law requires all salt for human and animal consumption to be iodized, including processed food that use salt. NO III Arcinue talked about the roles and responsibilities of different members of RBATF in the implementation of this law and the functions of RBATF and LBATF.
The last part of the meeting was refinement of the monitoring tool that will be used in household data collectors up to the provincial and regional level and it was led by NO I Patriarca. He asked for the comments, suggestions and other additional inputs that will help to the enhancement of the tool that will be used by the LBATF and RBATF.
The last meeting of the MIMAROPA RBATF was held last 2016. The main purpose of this meeting was to revitalize and reorganize the technical working group of RBATF in MIMAROPA to coordinate, implement and monitor RA 8172 to prevent Iodine Deficiency Disorder and also prevent of stunted in children.
