Indonesian local nutrition Muhilal, Mien K. Mahmud, Murni JD Prakoso In formulating enteral nutrition one should consider (i) local food habits (ii) availability of food and (iii) nutritional values. Nutritional values of enteral nutrition should meet the recommended dietary allowance. Indonesia consists of 17000 islands, among which five major islands are Sumatera, Jawa, Kalimantan, Sulawesi and Irian Jaya. The total population of Indonesia is around 210 million. There are more than 100 ethnic groups, each of which has its own food habits. From the point of view of food groups most of Indonesian menu consist of (i) staple food, dominated by rice (ii) side dishes consist of animal food, and beans and bean products, (iii) vegetables, and (iv) fruits which are taken after meal. Milk and milk products are not customarily consumed by most of the ethnics. The average energy intake based on national nutrition survey in 1998 was 1990 kcal per capita per day with 73% energy from carbohydrate, 10% from protein and 17% from fat. Energy intake from nutrition survey was different with that of food balance sheet which was 2990 kcal per capita per day. The difference could be caused by over estimation of food balance sheet and underestimation of data collected from nutrition survey. But the composition of carbohydrate, fat and protein is about the same. The intake of micro nutrients (vitamins and minerals) are mostly lower than the recommended dietary allowances, and their deficiencies has become a public health problem such as deficiencies vitamin A, iron, iodine and possibly zinc. Even-though not yet identified as a public health problem, the intakes of vitamin B group are lower than the RDA. There are some traditional food processing methods which can increase the nutritional values of food, such as tempe or fermented soybean. Tempe has been studied by many scientist and the added values has been extensively studied. Tempe maybe suitable for enteral feeding because of its contents of partially hydrolyzed protein, free essential fatty acids and some of the vitamins B group. These nutrition are the essential components of enteral food. From "The 7th Congress of the PENSA Abstract Book" Bali, Indonesia, August 24-26, 2001 : Page : 33