Alaska Milk Corporation and FrieslandCampina Partners to Bring Dairy Expertise

Wazzup Pilipinas!

The Alaska Milk Corporation’s (AMC) has been a trusted ally in providing everyday affordable nutrition to Filipino families.

I still remember the time during my childhood when they used to call me Alaska boy because I looked a lot like the image of the boy printed in every can of Alaska milk. I had curly wavy hair and had white complexion that I got from my mother side. But unfortunately when I grew older, I got to look more like my father. Anyway, the other reason they call me Alaska boy was because I would always prefer to eat milk with rice instead of any other viand. I would pour condensed milk on top of rice and eat it as is.

Obviously, Alaska has been my favorite because its the only brand that my mother buys from the supermarket even though there are several milk brands out there. Until now, Alaska remains a favorite choice.

This unwavering commitment is now made even stronger as Alaska Milk Corporation partners with Royal FrieslandCampina, the Dutch dairy company that has been supplying mothers all over the world with high quality dairy nutrition for over 130 years now. Mothers can now benefit more from the combined power and expertise of the two companies. The partnership will offer essential nutrients from milk at any stage of the people’s lives.

At the formal launch of a partnership held at the Solaire Resort and Casino Grand Ballroom last April 8, 2014, representatives from Alaska Milk Corporation namely Nutrition Consultant Tiffany Anne Santuyo, and from FrieslandCampina namely Consultant Dr. Henkjan Verkade and Senior Scientist for Nutrition Dr. Anne Schaafsma shared pertinent information revealing the health problems occurring among children today.

The event was hosted by T.V. host, commercial model, former radio DJ, and mother, Lexi Schulze who also shared that she had to give up certain foods like soda so that she can show her children that they need to eat healthier foods.

Tiffany shared that the nutritional situation of Filipino children is poor due to the high prevalence of wasting. She said that aside from having under-nutrition as a public health problem, there is also an increasing over-nutrition problem now emerging at selected regions in Luzon.

We also found out that under-nutrition is mainly caused by deficiencies in Vitamin A, Iron and Iodine which leads to underweight and stunting problems among children.

 Dr. Henkjan shared that "Breast is Best" pertaining to the fact that even though there are milk formulas developed for nutritional excellence, breast milk remains to be the best choice for your infant.

 

Meanwhile, Dr. Anne left us with the saying that lie musicians in an orchestra, qualitative nutrients in a balanced composition are the requirement for the best performance.

During the question and answer portion, they shared that learning to eat the right food to get proper nutrition is sort of difficult because we tend to fail to realize that many vices around us like smoking and eating too much sweet and sugary foods contribute to the health problems, especially among our children. They say it is more of the behavior that needs to be improved or changed towards recognizing proper ways to achieve good nutrition.

By offering trustworthy and tasty dairy products to billions of people all over the world, FrieslandCampina contributes towards safeguarding food and nutrient security. The company, that is fully owned by a cooperative with 19,244 member dairy farmers, is committed to high standards in the field of food safety, the personal safety of its employees, quality, sustainability and transparency throughout the entire production chain - ‘from grass to glass’. This lays the foundation for consumer trust in the products and safeguards the continuity of the company and the cooperative.

Aside from the Philippines, FrieslandCampina supplies dairy-based beverages, cheese and desserts to Europe, Africa and to key Asian countries like Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, China, Vietnam, Hong Kong and Singapore. Other products, such as cream and butter products, are supplied to bakeries and catering companies, while raw materials are also being supplied to manufacturers of infant nutrition, the food industry and the pharmaceutical sector around the world.

In 2013, FrieslandCampina registered a net income of 11.1 billion Euros, an increase of 10.8 percent from previous year. The company has 21,186 employees globally and has offices and production facilities in 28 countries.