不良研究所

不良研究所 earned its second consecutive victory in the Smart Snacks for Kids category

By Stephanie Wereley for

不良研究所 Food Science students won first prize in the Smart Snacks for Kids category at the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) annual expo in Chicago for their interactive pudding snack, Magic Mud Pots.

It was 不良研究所鈥檚 second consecutive victory in that category.

鈥淚t was a gratifying moment,鈥� said team member Emily Legault, who graduated last spring from the Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences with a degree in food science. 鈥淚t was a good seven months in the making, and it really validated all our hard work and creativity.鈥�

Magic Mud Pots are cups of chocolate black bean pudding that come with chocolate quinoa crumble and vegetable-shaped gummies. Kids are encouraged to channel their inner farmer by 鈥渢illing the soil鈥� (mixing the pudding and quinoa) and 鈥渉arvesting their veggies鈥� (adding the gummies), introducing them to common agricultural practices.

Legault developed the snack with her teammates Chanie Corbeil-Stroombergen, Marguerite Drolet and Siqi Li.

鈥淚t really is a culmination of all our learning throughout our degrees,鈥� said Legault. Team members did everything from food processing and sensory testing to quality assurance and marketing.

鈥淗ands-on training in our Food Product Development course provides our students with the practical skills and competencies important for the food industry,鈥� said聽Salwa Karboune, Professor in Food Science and Agricultural Chemistry and Associate Dean (Research) at the Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.

鈥淭he IFT competitions serve as the perfect opportunity for team members to put these integrated competencies into action, reinforcing the real-world applicability of their classroom learning. I am proud of our teams鈥� achievements,鈥� Karboune said.

Kid-tested, parent-approved

For the Magic Mud Pots team, the road to Chicago and their US $3,000 prize was paved with trial and error.

鈥淒eveloping a kids鈥� product is double the difficulty, because you鈥檙e marketing to kids, but your customers are actually the parents,鈥� said Legault. 鈥淪o, you have to try to find a middle ground.鈥�

Their initial product was a vegetable gummy that could be peeled like string cheese, but they discovered that its sugar content was too high to meet the competition鈥檚 requirements.

They went back to the drawing board: Drolet introduced the farming concept, Li developed the chocolate quinoa crumble, and the team repeatedly tested different formulations of the product.

鈥淲e were trying to get a sweetness level that kids would accept but trying to integrate minimal sugar, because that鈥檚 a concern for parents,鈥� said Legault.

By the end, they had a product that was not only gluten-free, nut-free and a source of fibre and protein, but kid-approved.

鈥淭here were lots of big smiley faces circled in our sensory analysis forms.鈥�

An invaluable experience

After placing in the top three in their Food Product Development class at 不良研究所 and providing IFT with numerous reports, the inventors of Magic Mud Pots were named finalists by the IFT Student Association and invited to attend the annual competition and expo in July alongside two other 不良研究所 teams.

鈥淭he IFT is a big and well-known event 鈥� especially in the food science world 鈥� and for those of us who are interested in food and product innovation and really want to work in R&D, it鈥檚 really exciting and exhilarating,鈥� said Legault.

Despite their success, the team decided not to pursue the commercialization of their product. Instead, the team members are tackling different challenges: Corbeil-Stroombergen and Drolet are working in food science, Legault is pursuing a master鈥檚 degree in food innovation and development and Li has one year left in the Food Science & Nutritional Science program.

鈥淲e鈥檝e learned so much and we鈥檙e really excited to apply all the skills and knowledge we鈥檝e gained from this project into future endeavours,鈥� said Legault.