The ethnic Filipino food called “laing” (taro leaves cooked in coconut cream) has long been marketed and enjoyed by Filipinos abroad because this has been canned with a shelf life of 1 year.  Edible taro leaves can only be found in the Philippines, hence, those living abroad who crave for this dish back home are able to have it instantly. Following this experience, instant “pinakbet” is also heading overseas and is being readied for the US, Europe, Middle East and Asia. 

A new technology that produces lactic acid using a low-cost, newly-found raw material that is abundant in Davao bagged the top prize in the recently concluded competitions in research and development conducted by the Philippine Council for Industry and Energy Research and Development (PCIERD) of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST). Instead of using the costly raw materials like glucose or lactose, sago starch, from the sago tree, a native plant in the Philippines, can now be used to produce lactic acid, a widely used component in the food industry, nutrition and more importantly now, in medicine and in the pharmaceutical industries. Worldwide, the international scientific community has also been studying lactic acid for its use as monomer for biodegradable plastics. These studies, however, center on finding an alternative process to chemical synthesis.