Healthy eating means consuming more fruits and vegetables.
But the frustration of most homemakers these days is that their desire to prepare nutritious food for the family is overtaken by hectic and demanding schedules.
Marilou Acuña, product manager of Fly Ace Corp., offers a solution:
“We want to provide the modern home cooks—the busy moms, specifically—with delicious fruits and vegetables packed at the peak of freshness, with value-for-money because you get it at a stable price and is readily available.”
For almost 50 years, Fly Ace Corp. has been bringing top-quality food and beverage products from across the globe to the Filipino home. Its husband-and-wife team of owners, Lucio Sr. and Ederlina Cochanco, started out in 1972 with a small shop selling agricultural and consumer goods. The shop was then known as Jolly General Merchandise.
The typical Chinese family business eventually grew and was incorporated in the 1990s into what is now known as Fly Ace. The couple’s commitment to providing high-quality products at affordable prices has made Fly Ace one of the most trusted food companies in the country. In the spirit of its first general store, Fly Ace has launched its flagship brand, Jolly.
Main goal
The Jolly brand, said Acuña, is known for its canned mushroom and corn products.
For the total food line of Jolly, Fly Ace president Jun Cochanco and his team want to promote healthier meals using Jolly products as ingredients.
During a media conference held at Movenpick Resort in Mactan, Cebu City, Cochanco said that the company’s main goal is to make family meals “more jolly”—that is, to add value to family meals and make eating time a fun, family-bonding experience.
Raging debate
In recent years, the debate between fresh and canned food has raged on.
However, the reality is that not everyone can go to the fresh market to get seasonal vegetables every single day.
This is where premium-quality canned fruits and vegetables come in handy, Acuña said.
Professor Luchie Callanta—resident nutritionist at the Center for Culinary Arts (CCA) Manila and a lecturer at the Department of Food Science and Nutrition of the University of the Philippines College of Home Economics—lectured on the myths and truths about canned products.
“It’s time to break some of the myths surrounding canned food,” she said.
Consumers may think that canned products are high on preservatives; this is where education comes in. It was pointed out that with many Jolly products, the contracting of the raw materials would start way before harvest.
The company would contract entire farmlands—from planting and growing, to the harvesting. Through the process, Jolly prescribes ideal farming procedures formulated by its team of agriculturists and nutrition experts.
Myth No. 1: Canned fruits and vegetables are filled with preservatives.
With Jolly Packaged Fruits and Vegetables, only water, salt and citric acid are used. No artificial preservatives are added to maintain the freshness and the quality of the canned fruits and vegetables.
Myth No. 2: Canned fruits and vegetables are less nutritious than fresh.
They are considered nutritionally equivalent to fresh produce because they are processed and canned as soon as they are harvested. There are “fresh” vegetables in supermarkets that have actually sat on the shelves for several days.
Myth No. 3: Canned fruits and vegetables are highly processed.
The vegetables actually go from farm to canning with minimal handling, using the most sophisticated machinery and process in sanitary conditions.
Jolly’s canned fruits and vegetable products, said Callanta, contain vitamins and nutrients essential to one’s health.
Easy-to-cook dishes
Chef Sau del Rosario, culinary director of CCA Manila, prepared five easy-to-cook healthy recipes using Jolly products: Peaches and Cream French Toast; Pork Humba with Mushrooms and Garbanzos; Maja Mais; Almond Gelatin with Lychees; and Grass Jelly and Shepherd’s Pie.
“For mushroom we are already the No. 1 brand, we own 80 percent of the market share now,” Acuña said, adding that corn lovers are also at the top of Jolly’s list of favorite customers.
The event also named two new Jolly brand ambassadors to represent the company’s advocacy on cooking and eating healthy.
Janice Crisostomo-Villanueva, founder of the website mommymundo.com, has almost a decade of passionate and inspired mom-focused work, covering years of memorable projects in various forms of media-promoting parenting.
Through her site, she celebrates the gift of motherhood, womanhood, friendship and “mompreneurship” with the community. Villanueva is happily married with three kids.
Frances Amper Sales is the market editor of Baby Magazine. She is also the author of two popular blogs, Topaz Horizon and Topaz Mommy, where she chronicles her life as an editor and writer, a wife, a mother to three little boys, and as a homemaker.
“The brand chose these two moms because they’re the epitome of Jolly moms who run their own business/careers while managing their own household,” said Acuña.
Meanwhile, April Lim of The BentoMommas did bento presentations. The BentoMommas are comprised of five moms based here and abroad.
The BentoMommas Facebook page has expanded to include over 12,000 community members, mostly moms from different parts of the Philippines and the world, who share the same love for bento-making. It also offers weekly design challenges, bento resources, bento catering, bento workshops, and online shopping.
“The bento-theme lunch boxes contain our tried and tested pasta, chicken, sandwich recipes and baked goods—all customized to follow the designated party theme,” said Lim.
To learn more about Jolly’s newest products and easy recipes, follow Facebook Jolly Eats; Twitter @jollyeatsPH; and Instagram @jollyeatsPH.
E-mail the author at broberto@inquirer.com.ph