10 Philippine food items land on endangered list

Tuba, muscovado sugar, ginamos — recognize any of these Philippine food products?

Chances are succeeding generations may no longer do, according to the Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity in its Ark of Taste project, an online catalog that chronicles food items whose quantities are slowly disappearing from a country’s culture.

The Ark of Taste project has added 10 more Philippine food products to its list, rounding up the total number of items from the country to 75.

Food advocate John Sherwix, who founded the culinary archive Lokalpedia, shared the news online.

The 10 items that have been added to the list are:

• Tubâ
• Artisanal Muscovado Sugar
• Tultul
• 4. Matang Baka
• Capiz Shell
• Badila Sugarcane
• Pinakas
• Pusô
• Ginamos
• Dayok

Other items previously included in the list are batwan, a souring agent common in Negros, tawilis, a freshwater sardine endemic to Taal Lake, and kapeng barako (barako coffee), a varietal under the liberica species that grows in Batangas and Cavite.

Ark of Taste lists food products, including domestic and wild varieties as well as processed items, linked to local traditional knowledge that are at risk of becoming endangered. 

About 151 countries are part of the Ark of Taste catalog.