UNAIR NEWS – Universitas Airlangga (UNAIR) has made another wonderful achievement in the international essay competition. UNAIR Team consisting of Fany Zumrotul Faizah, Aisyah Hartiningrum, Evan Gabriel Nababan, M. Rofiqi Azmi, and Shavira Priyantika Putri won a gold medal in the Creation of Innovation and Food Security at the International Agriculture Technology Essay Competition (INTEGRATION) at Universitas Brawijaya.
Rofiqi explained that the team had gone through several stages: essay submission, assessment, and the winner announcement from January 1 to 10, 2023. During that time, they practiced logic and solved type 2 diabetes mellitus problems.
“It’s an opportunity to compete in logic and writing at the global level and create an innovative contribution to the world’s health problem, particularly the type 2 diabetes mellitus,” he stated.
Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus cases rise
The prevalence of type 2 diabetes mellitus increases year by year. Therefore, effective innovations and preventive actions are required to protect patients from serious complications.
It encourages Rofiqi and the team to formulate an innovation to solve the problem. They made an alternative, a low-sugar snack to keep the hunger away.
“We make innovation and contribute to realizing the SDGs point 3 of 2030 that correlates with our program in health. We focus on people with type 2 diabetes mellitus, which becomes a national problem,” he said.
Gurabites
UNAIR Team creates Gurabites as a snack product for Indonesian people. The low-sugar snack bar has high antioxidants. It releases insulin from the pancreas and nourishes the body.
The team uses ingredients with minimum use and transforms them into products with higher selling value, like sago and porang tubers, with the addition of corn silk and “trembesi” sugar. Rofiqi hoped that the innovation will positively impact the community’s food consumption pattern.
“We hope to develop a healthier consumption pattern, which decreases the number of patients with diabetes mellitus. Besides, it also controls the blood sugar from food consumption,” he added.
Hopefully, the innovation will improve the community’s standard of living. Therefore, the innovation should help reduce the high cases of type 2 diabetes mellitus worldwide.
Rofiqi hoped that the innovation will grow better to develop healthy human resources in achieving SDGs point 3, good health and well-being. Healthy living and community welfare for all age groups will be increased through functional food diversity improvement.
“We hope the product could develop better with a bigger production scale and collaborate with the SMEs or food manufacturing industries,” he said.
Author: Monika Astria Br Gultom
Editor: Feri Fenoria
