Bakery fair, Mar. 2-4

If you are a baker, baking enthusiast or just someone who loves baked goodies, you may want to visit the 2023 Bakery Fair Philippines organized by the Filipino-Chinese Bakery Association, Inc. (FCBCi) at the World Trade Center in Pasay City.

With the theme “Invigorate. Enhance. Sustain.”, the fair will be an international exhibition of bakery, confectionery, and food service equipment and supplies. A highlight of the event is the awarding of winners of a wedding cake competition.

Natural pesticide

Plant lovers, who also enjoy a good cup of brewed coffee, will be glad to know their used ground coffee does not have to go straight to the trash can. The caffeine in coffee serves as a natural pesticide that “disturb[s] the behavior and growth of numerous insects and their larvae,” according to a New York Times report on the discovery of the chemical’s natural function in 1984.

“In tests, caffeine proved effective against mosquitos, tobacco hornworms, milkweed bugs, mealworms, and other pests; some of these tiny foes became uncoordinated, while others’ appetites were suppressed.”

Tea drinkers, who prefer leaves rather than powder that completely dissolves, can also use discarded tea bags to keep pests away from their gardens. Tea has caffeine, too.

Other plants that naturally contain caffeine include kola, cacao, guarana and yerba mate.

Top in identity solutions

HID, a worldwide leader in identity solutions, announced that it topped the list of 19
solution providers on the growth index of the Frost Radar benchmarking system for analyzing biometric authentication solution suppliers.

Frost & Sullivan said HID and the other 18 listed companies should be considered first for investment, partnerships, or benchmarking in this market segment. The report was titled “Frost Radar: Biometric Authentication Solutions, 2022”.

“Earning the highest score on the Frost Radar growth index is a testament to the hard work and investment that HID has put into its biometric authentication portfolio,” said Steve Currie, senior vice president and managing director of Extended Access Technologies at HID. “Our solutions give people around the world an improved authentication experience that uses fingerprint or face.”

He said HID solutions were used globally across a broad and growing range of
applications, such as enhancing and securing banking services and transforming the retail experience to speeding up and simplifying patient identification assurance.

Among the factors that the study looked into was the innovation index. HID was
recognized for successfully pivoting to more digital identity solutions over the last decade, ongoing solution development for biometric credentials, and ensuring its solutions work with its legacy hardware as new capability upgrades.

Vito Fabbrizio, managing director biometrics for HID’s Extended Access Technologies, said, “We continue to evolve and expand to service multiple markets with a comprehensive offering of solutions that align with our customer’s changing needs and help them solve new and increasingly difficult challenges. According to the Frost Radar analysis, HID has become a benchmark in the industry for its vision, strategy, and execution excellence.