Author
Adviser
Micronutrient deficiency is present among all Filipino age groups. According to the Expanded National Nutrition Survey in the Philippines by DOST-FNRI (2018) the prevalence of vitamin A inadequacy from 6 years old to elderly 70 varies at 60.3 to 76.1%. The prevalence of iron inadequacy among the age groups adolescents, adults, elderly, pregnant women, and lactating women do not go lower than 95%. And prevalence of vitamin C in the same age range varies from 83.1 to 97.1%. Fortification of foods is one of the preventive strategies against vitamin A, iron and other deficiencies by increasing the nutrient adequacy of commonly consumed foods. Fortifying milk tea with M. oleifera leaves powder could increase the iron and vitamin C intakes of the main Filipino consumers of milk tea especially the age groups adolescents, and adults. This study aimed to formulate a Malunggay leaves powder (MLP) aqueous extract-supplemented bubble milk tea with optimum acceptability and micronutrient content. Specifically, this study formulated milk tea treated with 0.5%, 1.0% and 1.5% MLP aqueous extract. All had undergone to sensory evaluation which indicated significantly different general acceptability ratings (p-value 0.0435) wherein the 1.5% MLP treatment was determined to be the most acceptable. According to the secondary data, a 340-mL serving of 1.5% MLP aqueous extract-supplemented milk tea has total micronutrient contents of 170.025 µg RE vitamin A, 15.094 mg vitamin C. These micronutrient contents were found to provide high percent adequacies on the EAR of 10 to 70 years old population groups according to the PDRI (FNRI-DOST, 2015).