Michigan State University Food Product Development Team Repeats Victory at National Competition
Michigan State University Food Product Development Team Repeats Victory at National Competition
8/5/08
Contact: Eileen Gianiodis
517-432-1555, ext. 177
or
Janice Harte
517-355-8474, ext. 105
EAST LANSING, Mich. -- They are the ultimate comfort food – just-baked and warm chocolate chip cookies. That is, unless you’re allergic to wheat, eggs, milk or nuts.
Until now.
A team of students from the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources (CANR) at Michigan State University (MSU) developed ready-to-bake chocolate chip cookie dough that earned first place in the annual Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) food product development competition held recently in New Orleans.
The product is a ready-to-bake cookie dough dubbed “Ready-to-Dough” that is free of the eight allergens most commonly listed by the Food and Drug Administration. The cookie dough is gluten-free and has no eggs, dairy or nuts in it.
“Having a team of students from MSU win this competition for the second year in a row is a tribute to the quality and creativity of our students, the excellence of our instructional programs and the commitment of the team’s advisers, Janice Harte and Larry Zink,” said Gale Strasburg, chairperson of the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition.
The concept began in Harte’s capstone class for food science majors as a gluten-free peanut butter cookie dry mix and evolved into an allergen-free refrigerated chocolate chip cookie dough.
“Ready-to-Dough is a product that definitely fills a current consumer need for good-tasting allergen-free products at a reasonable price,” said Harte, assistant professor of food science and human nutrition.
“What impressed me most was the way that all the team members worked so well together and performed so well under the professional judges’ intense questioning,” she said. “Having a diverse team truly replicates a real-world situation, where formulation, production, packaging and marketing all come into play.”
Zink agreed.
“Being able to go back and improve the product’s consistency, production and packaging helped the team improve the bottom line,” he said.
The team consisted of eight CANR students: Aileen Tanojo and Megan Schwannecke, both food science majors pursuing master’s degrees; Eric Birmingham, a recent food science graduate; Ashley Walters and Nicole Goldman, both food science majors; Raghav Sundar, a packaging major; Shantanu Kelkar, a biosystems engineering student; and Charles Pountney, a student majoring in food industry management.
The team was cited by the judges for its ability to focus on the entire process as well as for the taste of the cookie.
Food product development teams from 25 universities participated in the annual competition. The MSU team was one of six finalists invited to make presentations and undergo evaluation during the IFT's annual meeting. Finalists submitted papers and posters and then gave product presentations before a live audience. A panel of five industry professionals judged the student presentations on marketing, cost analysis, packaging and nutritional labeling. The final phase of the competition was a tasting that determined whether the products delivered on the promises made during the presentations.
Although none of the students on the team has food allergies, all of them became more sensitive to the issues that people with food allergies face on a daily basis as the process moved forward.
Team members attended a conference for people with celiac disease (a digestive disease whose sufferers are not able to digest gluten, the primary component in wheat flour) to complete market research for the product, and they learned that food allergies are an emotional topic.
“We found out that many times gluten- and allergy-free products are expensive and taste bad. Why should these people have to suffer?” said team member Birmingham, of South Lyon. “Just because they have allergies doesn’t mean they have to eat food that doesn’t taste good.”
“It was also important that our product was affordable and easy to make for the time-constrained consumer,” said Tanojo, who, along with Birmingham and Goldman, was a member of last year’s first place team as well. “With this product, the consumer gets the experience of baking at home as well as a cookie the whole family can enjoy.”
Ready-to-Dough is not on the market yet. Team members have applied for a patent for the process and the recipe.