Local food in Isi Piringku

The importance of adding local context to Indonesia’s balanced-nutrition guidelines

Sharannie, Kamilah Nur Aini, Mahdiyatur Rahmah
CIFOR-ICRAF Indonesia

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The “4 Sehat 5 Sempurna” (4 Healthy 5 Perfect) principle is no longer used as a nutritional reference in Indonesia. Since 2014, the government has replaced it with the “Balanced Nutrition Guidelines” (Pedoman Gizi Seimbang), which take a more holistic approach — emphasising not only the types of food consumed, but also balanced portions, physical activity, and a clean and healthy lifestyle overall.

These guidelines are visualised through the Balanced Nutrition Cone (Tumpeng Gizi Seimbang), and later simplified into the concept of “Isi Piringku (My Plate)” — a single-serving eating guide that illustrates the ideal portion of each food group on one plate. At a glance it resembles “4 Healthy 5 Perfect”, but there is one important difference: milk is no longer regarded as the finishing touch, but merely one source of animal protein.

Practical as it is, the Isi Piringku guideline issued by Indonesia’s Ministry of Health still uses common food examples. Yet, according to the Ministry of Environment and Forestry [1], Indonesia has an extraordinarily diverse food heritage: around 100 types of carbohydrate sources, more than 100 types of legumes, 450 types of fruit, and 250 types of vegetables and mushrooms. This diversity means that every region in Indonesia has its own unique and distinct local foods.

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For this reason, adapting the balanced-nutrition guidelines to the local context is essential, so that communities can more easily understand and apply balanced nutrition using ingredients that are genuinely available around them. In this way, communities are expected to be better able to meet their nutritional needs in line with the balanced-nutrition guidelines, prevent malnutrition, and at the same time promote the preservation of local food culture, increase local food consumption, and ease the economic burden on households.

This became the basis for the creation of Isi Piringku Lokal (Local My Plate) within the Land4Lives project, which is supported by the Government of Canada through CIFOR-ICRAF. Collaborating with the District Health Offices of Bone and Timor Tengah Selatan (TTS), CIFOR-ICRAF has worked to adapt the national nutrition guidelines to the local food context of each region, taking into account food availability, nutritional value, and community eating habits.

Local food vs food delocalisation

Bone District in South Sulawesi and TTS in East Nusa Tenggara have different food characteristics and eating cultures, yet face the same challenge: the diversity of available food is not yet reflected in people’s consumption patterns. According to data from the 2023 Indonesian Health Survey (SKI), the Minimum Dietary Diversity (MDD) for children aged 6–23 months in both provinces was below the national figure (South Sulawesi 48.6%; East Nusa Tenggara 44.8%; national 60.9%) [2]. The Land4Lives survey also confirms this: only around 34–37% of households in Bone and 25–35% of households in TTS consume at least five food groups per day — indicating a low Household Dietary Diversity Score (HDDS).

Land4Lives findings ^[3] show that local food is at the heart of dietary patterns in Bone and TTS, as these areas supply most of the vegetables, fruits, legumes and fish consumed daily. This strong reliance shows that local food continues to sustain the local food system. However, the findings also show that in both areas there are many local foods that are increasingly rarely consumed.

In Bone District, for example, there are bean leaves, ridged gourd (luffa), patterned beans, banana blossom, and various local vegetables that are beginning to be abandoned. Meanwhile in TTS, many local maize varieties, forest legumes, mushrooms and tubers that were once commonly eaten now rarely appear on the dining table.

At the same time, food delocalisation is also taking place. This can be seen in the rising consumption of wheat, chicken, sweetened beverages, processed and ultra-processed foods, and fast food (Nurhasan et al. 2024) ^[4]. In Bone District, oil, fats, milk and most processed products are almost entirely non-local. In TTS, rice — most of it imported — has replaced several traditional staples such as maize and tubers, while processed foods, palm oil and sugar also depend on external supply chains.

Both situations illustrate the reality that abundant food availability does not always translate into diverse, nutritious and balanced consumption. Fieldwork found that limited practical knowledge of how to prepare nutritious menus from local ingredients, together with the still sub-optimal integration of nutrition education into primary care, means that efforts to improve nutrition require a more contextual approach grounded in local potential.

Without contextual and easy-to-understand educational materials, the potential of local food is difficult to translate into nutritious eating practices at the household level.

Isi Piringku Lokal

For this reason, the Land4Lives team developed the Panduan Isi Piringku Lokal (Local My Plate Guide) — an educational resource that groups local food ingredients by their nutritional content and provides examples of balanced menus using local ingredients, complete with portions and guidance on composing a balanced menu from ingredients available around the household. The guide is designed to help health workers, cadres and relevant local government agencies (OPD) deliver nutrition education that is closer to the reality of communities.

To ensure the guide genuinely fits field needs and context, the development process was carried out participatively together with health workers, District Health Office staff, and representatives of relevant agencies who are part of the Landscape Working Group (Pokja Bentang Lahan). Through this process, participants jointly reviewed the content of the guide, enriched the material, and adapted the educational messages so that they are more contextual and easier to apply in primary care settings such as community health centres (Puskesmas) and integrated health posts (Posyandu).

The refined guide was then tested for comprehensibility and effectiveness, to ensure that health workers and communities can easily understand and practise the message of balanced nutrition based on local food in everyday life.

The guide can serve as a source of food and nutrition literacy, which is vital in the health field, by empowering individuals to make sound decisions about food and its effects, thereby improving overall health (Silva et al., 2023) ^[5].

Through this collaborative process, the Isi Piringku Lokal initiative is expected to bridge technical nutrition knowledge and community practice — ensuring that the message of nutritious eating not only reaches people, but is also put into practice.

By drawing on the wealth of local food, it is hoped that Indonesian communities — particularly those in Bone and TTS — can become more self-reliant in meeting their nutritional needs, strengthen household food security, and support the government’s efforts towards a healthier, more resilient and more sustainable society.

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Access the Isi Piringku Lokal Guide and other Land4Lives food and nutrition publications here.

Reference

^[1] Kementerian Lingkungan Hidup dan Kehutanan. 2006. Status lingkungan hidup Indonesia. In Walujo EB. Keanekaragaman Hayati untuk pangan. Presentation, Kongres Ilmu Pengetahuan X, 8–10 November 2011. Jakarta. Indonesia: Lembaga Ilmu Pengetahuan Indonesia. KEANEKARAGAMAN-HAYATI-UNTUK-PANGAN-Pusat-Penelitian-Biologi-LIPI.pdf

^[2] Kemenkes RI. 2025. Survei Status Gizi Indonesia 2024. Jakarta: Kemenkes RI.

^[3] Lusiana B, Fortuna BD. 2024. Status Gizi dan Indeks Keragaman Pangan Ibu: Hasil Survei Pangan dan Gizi di 6 Desa Binaan Land4Lives di DAS Benain, Kabupaten Timor Tengah Selatan. Bogor, Indonesia: World Agroforestry (ICRAF). https://lahanuntukkehidupan.id/sumberdaya/publikasi/?pid=5242

^[4] Nurhasan M, Ariesta DL, Utami MMH, Fahim M, Apriliyana N, Maulana AM, Ickowitz A. 2024. Dietary transitions in Indonesia: the case of urban, rural, and forested areas. Food Security. 16(1):1313-1331. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12571-024-01488-3

^[5] Silva, P., Araújo, R., Lopes, F., & Ray, S. (2023). Nutrition and Food Literacy: Framing the Challenges to Health Communication. Nutrients, 15. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu15224708

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Editor: Pijar Anugerah

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Originally published in Indonesian as “Pangan Lokal dalam Isi Piringku” on lahanuntukkehidupan.id