TO highlight the importance of thinking about nutrition when cooking, Milex distributor, DeSinco Limited, and Carnegie School of Home Economics, recently rolled out an extensive training programme.
The programme was driven by four pillars: providing students at the Carnegie School of Home Economics with training about dairy nutrition and how dairy food is produced from grass to glass, providing students training in how to eat healthy and cook nutritious meals from scratch, organising a cooking competition to support the learning activities and enabling the students to implement their knowledge in real life, a statement from DeSinco said.
The company explained that the training focused on healthy eating habits, nutrition and where the food comes from, and it targetted the school’s commercial cooking classes.
The training was conducted by an Arla team that was in Guyana at the time to work on the project.
According to DeSinco, dairy expert Christoffer Madsen, who is the Senior Manager at Arla Foods, delivered a full educational experience on dairy and the Arla company from the farm in Denmark, to the table in Guyana.
Mette Kristensen, the nutritionist for Arla foods, also had a very interactive session with the students.
She provided training on healthy eating habits and nutrition importance in our everyday lives with a focus on dairy, including the food-based dietary guidelines recommended in Guyana.
This was not only an informative session for the students, but the DeSinco and Arla team rolled out a cooking competition for the students which will be part of their final grade, the statement added.

For the competition, students were asked to create three-course meals, inclusive of an appetizer, main course and dessert, but their challenge was ensuring that each recipe contained Milex Milk.
“Traditionally Guyanese recipes are not milk based, especially our savory foods, so it was a good challenge that the students were very excited about. The commercial cooking classes were split into six teams and given four hours to create their meals and they did not disappoint in this challenge,” the statement said.
The competition was held in Carnegie’s kitchen and was overlooked and judged by the Deputy Head of Carnegie, Tandika Griffith; Head Chef at Amici, Vibert Rodrigues and members of the DeSinco team.
The students made everything from eggnog to metemgee to Panna Cotta, an Italian dessert made of sweetened cream thickened with gelatin and molded.
Each team went a step further and did over the top presentations of their dishes, nicely laid out on beautifully decorated tables for the judges to taste. The students and their meals were all impressive.
The winning team included Vanetta Gordon, Vanecia Henry, Marion Budburgh, Samiya Ramdial and Nikitta Rossan.
“The perspective and learnings of the initiative are big as the students will be part of the Guyanese food sector. These students now make a difference on healthy eating habits and thinking about nutrition when cooking and this can help us all to become stronger from within,” the statement said.
Milex Milk is produced by Arla Foods, one of the largest dairy companies in the world. It is a farmer-owned cooperative in Denmark, producing milk that is natural, nutritious, and produced in a responsible and sustainable way. It is part of the Arla Foods sustainability strategy to promote healthy eating habits and support local societies.