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NUTRITION EXCHANGE
14
ORIGINAL ARTICLES
‘True Sri Lankan Taste’
food outlets: Promoting
indigenous foods for
healthier diets
(left to right) Disna Rathnasinghe is Additional Director in Agribusiness Development in the
Department of Agriculture, Sri Lanka.
Gamini Samarasinghe is Additional Director of the Plant Genetic Resources Centre, Sri Lanka
and National Coordinator of the Biodiversity for Food and Nutrition project.
Renuka Silva is Professor of Nutrition and Chair of the Department of Applied Nutrition,
Wayamba University of Sri Lanka.
Danny Hunter is Global Coordinator of the Biodiversity for Food and Nutrition Project and a
senior scientist in the Healthy Diets from Sustainable Food Systems initiative.
Introduction
Sri Lanka, one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots, is home
to a huge diversity of edible species, including wild plants,
local animal breeds, food crops and traditional nutrient-rich
varieties of fruit and vegetables. Sri Lankan farmers have
maintained this rich agro-biodiversity in their elds for
thousands of years. Today, urbanisation and generational
changes in food preferences and lifestyles have led to changes
in food production, eating habits and the food system.
Although the health and living standards of Sri Lankans
have improved in recent years, malnutrition continues to be
a serious problem. There have been moderate declines in
the prevalence of undernourishment (from 13.8% in 2010
to 10.9% in 2018) and child stunting (from 19.2% in 2010
to 17.3% in 2018), but child wasting has increased to an
alarming rate of 15.1% over the same period1. Moreover,
more than half of Sri Lankan children and adolescents are
aected by multiple micronutrient deciencies, including
low levels of vitamin A and iron2. At the same time, diet-
related non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as diabetes,
cardiovascular disease, obesity and cancer are on the rise in
Sri Lanka: one in three people have raised blood pressure
and a third of women are overweight3. Consumption of salt
is two to three times higher than recommended and the
consumption of fruits, vegetables and milk products is low2.
An untapped resource
Nutrient-rich indigenous species remain a largely untapped
resource for long-term food security in the country. Including
agro-biodiversity in food systems and diets can help solve
national diet-related nutrition and health issues by providing
ready access to the diversity of nutrients needed for healthy
growth and living, yet there are many barriers and constraints
to the production and consumption of indigenous foods.
Currently, locally available traditional fruits and vegetables
are considered ‘inferior’; often due to a lack of awareness
and because they do not meet aesthetic standards that
consumers have come to expect. More technical, political
and nancial support, as well as incentives and public
1 globalnutritionreport.org/nutrition-proles/asia/southern-asia/sri-lanka/
2 Weerahewa J, Gedara P, Wijetunga C. Nutrition Transition in Sri Lanka: A
Diagnosis. Ann. Nutr. Food Sci. 2018;2:1020
3 www.who.int/beat-ncds/countries/sri-lanka/en/
The canteens provide women with an
opportunity to run their own business
Biodiversity for Food and Nutrition project
15
NUTRITION EXCHANGE
ORIGINAL ARTICLES
awareness, are clearly needed if farmers are to conserve and
grow these foods and if consumers are to nd them desirable
and create demand for them.
Healthy food outlets run by women
One innovative approach to addressing these multiple
challenges has been the design and implementation of a
network of Hela Bojun ‘True Sri Lankan Taste’ food outlets
throughout the country. These outlets are operated by
about 750 women trained by the Women’s Agriculture
Extension Programme in the Department of Agriculture in
food preparation, food hygiene, customer care and business
management. Currently there are 22 outlets established
primarily in urban areas, including university campuses and
near government oces.
There were a number of reasons for initiating a network of
Hela Bojun, including:
• to generate agriculture-based entrepreneurship,
employment and private enterprise opportunities,
especially for women, in order to provide a sustainable
and stable family income;
• to create awareness and interest among new generations
about healthy eating and the nutritional value of
disappearing traditional foods and recipes, while trying to
reduce the inuence of the growing fast-food culture;
• to reduce reliance on foreign food imports, while creating
demand for local produce.
Addressing rising obesity levels
This is the rst national local food-outlet network of its kind
to actively promote indigenous foods for healthy eating as
well as livelihoods of rural women and farmers. Hela Bojun
have proven popular among customers, with enthusiasm
and demand for local traditional foods. There is also growing
awareness among the population at large about the impact
of poor diet on general health and increasing levels of
overweight/obesity and NCDs and the potential of nutrient-
rich traditional foods as part of the solution to addressing this.
Eorts to enhance awareness and presentation of local,
healthy traditional foods are continuing, including additional
capacity-building of outlet vendors. The food outlets have
been selling local foods at competitive and aordable prices,
helping make traditional foods more available to the general
population. Some women have been empowered to earn a
decent living wage (600-800 USD/month).
Making snacks healthier
Through the Biodiversity for Food and Nutrition project4,
which has been supporting the expansion of the Hela Bojun
network, a multi-sector platform has been established in
Sri Lanka that links many relevant ministries (including
health), universities, non-governmental organisations
and community-based organisations, chefs, dieticians
and nutritionists. This has had many benets, including
partnering with a university research network that has
provided data on the nutritional composition of local foods
sold in outlets, and there are plans to display nutrition
information labelling in the future. Other initiatives include
chefs working with the women’s groups to build capacity in
quality, presentation and handling of food.
An assessment of the nutritional value of foods on sale found
that some traditional breakfast meals and snacks could not
be categorised as ‘healthy’. To address this, various partners
are working with Hela Bojun organisers to identify more
nutritious and healthy alternatives and recipes once common
in Sri Lankan food culture, especially traditional cereal
products (millet), under-utilised seasonal fruits, vegetables
and a variety of green leafy vegetables in eorts to make
these more widely available. The initiative also includes
healthier food preparation and recipes that are at the same
time visually appealing to consumers.
Future campaigns
In addition, new eorts are focusing on targeted, innovative,
healthy food promotion campaigns, communication
strategies using social media and mass media, and for the
Department of Agriculture to collaborate on these with the
private sector and universities. Promoting healthy foods,
especially traditional cereals, pulses, fruits and vegetables,
may not only strengthen the health promotion aspect of the
initiative but at the same time could better link Hela Bojun
outlets to schools, home gardens, urban gardens, workplaces
and small-scale farms. Some of these campaigns are currently
underway and include discussions with the Ministry of
Education to convert school canteens into Hela Bojun.
4 The Biodiversity for Food and Nutrition project was a multi-country project
in Brazil, Kenya, Turkey and Sri Lanka funded by the Global Environment
Facility, the funding mechanism for the implementation of the United
Nations Convention on Biological Diversity. www.b4fn.org/countries
Hela Bojun are working to make healthy and
nutritious foods available, based on recipes once
common in Sri Lankan culture
Biodiversity for Food and Nutrition project