Penang swiflet industry needs a proper nest

As Penang celebrates its month-long George Town Heritage Festival to commemorate the second year of the city’s listing as a Unesco World Heritage site, the issue of swiflet farming hovers over the heads of its authorities, posing a threat to the prestigious listing status.

Malaysia is currently looking at implementing the Swiflet Industry Guidelines for Edible Birds Nest harvesters to turn the business into a RM5 billion industry by 2020.
The Penang state government will now need to make a stand on how it wishes to regulate this potentially lucrative industry.
The issue being faced in George Town currently is that the swiflet industry is co-existing along residents and businesses of the historic inner city.
So-called “restored” shophouses are said to be fronts of swiflet farms, since swiflet farmers are believed to prefer buying or renting properties in George Town, than locate their operations in an agricultural area.
Apart from posing heritage concerns, the issue of public health is one which needs urgent addressing.
The hardened nests made up of swiflet saliva have been a delicacy treasured by the Chinese for centuries.

The global market for Edible Birds Nest is said to be worth billions of ringgit.

Because of the head-start it had about two decades ago in swiflet farming on a commercial scale, Indonesia supplies between 70 per cent and 80 per cent of the delicacy consumed worldwide, mainly in Hong Kong, Taiwan, China, Macau, Singapore and North America.
From the public health angle, swiflet houses are said to have the potential to spread diseases from bird droppings within an enclosed area and sewage, which are dumped into city drains.

Penang swiflet industry needs a proper nest

The dried bird droppings have also been attributed to cause lung infections.

Apart from not allowing residents, hotel and restaurant operators and other businesses to operate in a healthy environment, swiflet houses are also being feared in George Town for its potential to cause damage to properties and result in the devaluation of these units.
In 2008, the Edible Birds Nest industry was worth RM1 billion with unpackaged Edible Birds Nest fetching up to RM7,000 per kg.
Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Minister Datuk Seri Noh Omar had recently said the guidelines for swiflet farming were aimed at reducing red tape by making licensing easier.
He said the Department of Veterinary Services, which prepared the guidelines, were simplifying the process of obtaining approvals with the Health Ministry, Department of Environment, Wildlife and National parks Department, Farmers’ Organisation Authority and local authorities.
Among others, Noh said the guidelines encompassed the good husbandry practices, good manufacturing practice and Edible Birds Nest certification.
They also cover import and export approvals, coordination by the department of city and town planning, registration and licensing.
George Town is currently home to an estimated 300 swiflet farms, which are said to be operating out of shophouses. The majority of these operators are believed to not have any licences to operate the business in the city.
The state authorities are now being asked to move fast to prevent further noise, smell, property damage and unsanitary conditions, which are now associated when swiflet farms over shophouses in George Town.
In stressing that they are not calling for a ban of swiflet farming in Malaysia, Penang activists are simply asking for the activities to be banned from urban and residential areas, so that the safety of residents and tourists is ensured.
All it takes now is for a special area or zone to be designated for swiftlet operations and allow the industry to soar and rake in the high investments it is touted to yield.

How to make Edible Birds Nest

Chinese Edible Birds Nest is one bizarrely cool dish to get tweeting about

The bird is the word

Edible Birds Nest may sound like a crazy Chinese urban legend of a dish, you know, one so bonkers it can’t be real or it’s just a funny lost-in-translation name, but the delicacy is indeed an authentic one. Rather from being made from twigs and bits of moss, they’re made from the hardened saliva from Edible Birds Nests and dissolved in a broth.

If that still doesn’t sound too appetising, don’t worry, today they’re harvested entirely for human consumption and super-high in minerals like calcium, magnesium and potassium. Believed to enhance the immune system, aid digestion and improve libido Edible Birds Nest has been keeping the Chinese healthy (and horny) since 500 AD during the Tang dynasty. A dish for the elite, it was only imperial nobility who dined on the unique broth. According to legend it was the great admiral Cheng Ho who bought the Edible Birds Nest to Southeast Asia for the Chinese Emperor.
These days, whilst still a rare delicacy, Edible Birds Nest is easily accessible for mere mortals. In Chinatown you can find the sacred dish at Gerrard Street’s Royal Dragon or if you want to prepare it at home, dried nests can be bought from SeeWoo supermarket on Lisle Street.

Here’s how to make your Edible Birds Nest.

METHOD:
Soak the Edible Birds Nest for 6 hours or leave overnight until it has softened and expanded
Remove and chop into portions, allocate 15g per person
Add the portions to the chicken stock with the ginger and oil and stew for 20 minutes over heat until the nests have dissolved
Add seasoning or adjust stock levels to taste then it’ll be ready to serve!

Healing Powers of Edible Birds Nest Remain Mysterious

At as much as $4,500 per pound, Edible Birds Nests are among the most expensive foods on the planet.
Made from the saliva of cave-dwelling birds called swiftlets, the nests are dangerous to harvest, laborious to prepare and have, according to traditional Chinese medicine, a long list of health benefits.
Traditionally consumed in soup, Edible Birds Nests are now being turned into food and drink additives as well as put into cosmetics, say two Chinese researchers who have assessed just what is known about the nutritional and medicinal properties of this expensive, and to Westerners, strange-sounding health food.
Science cannot yet explain the healing powers attributed to the soup, they conclude. Edible Birds Nests "bioactivities and medicinal value are still open to question as there (is) not much scientific research on the medicinal properties," Fucui Ma and Daicheng Liu of Shandong Normal University in China write in a review article to be published in the October issue of the journal Food Research International. .
Swiftlets live in limestone caves around the Indian Ocean, in South and South East Asia, North Australia and the Pacific Islands. Males primarily build the nests, attaching them to the vertical walls of the caves. Removing them can be dangerous and painstaking work, and, depending on the type of nest, it can take one person eight hours to clean 10 nests, the researchers write.
For possibly 1,200 years, the Chinese have prepared and eaten the nests as a soup. The nests are considered to have a high nutritional and medicinal value, believed to have everything from anti-aging and anti-cancer properties to the ability to improve concentration and raise libido.
Protein is the most abundant constituent of the nests, which contain all of the essential amino acids, the building blocks out of which proteins are made. They also contain six hormones, including testosterone and estradiol, the researchers write.
The nests also contain carbohydrates, ash and a small quantity of lipids (naturally occurring molecules that include fats). Previous research has indicated that the nests contain substances that can stimulate cell division and growth, enhance tissue growth and regeneration, and that it can inhibit influenza infections.
But not everyone reacts well to them. Edible Birds Nests are known to cause anaphylaxis, a life-threatening allergic reaction.
Little research has been carried out on their biological function so far, and more is needed to better understand the qualities attributed to them, they conclude.