Students grab top honors in food competition

It looks like odd years are a lucky charm for the University of Wisconsin–Madison Product Development Team.

The group of food science students captured first place this year in a national product development contest sponsored by the Institute of Food Technologists for “Healthy sTarts,” a granola cup coated with strawberry-flavored yogurt and topped with strawberries and blueberries. Teams from the UW–Madison previously won first place in 2003 and 2001, and have been to the final competition six times since 1998.

This year, the UW–Madison team was one of six finalists – from a national field of a few dozen – chosen to present their project at the IFT’s annual meeting in New Orleans. They spent two days providing samples for a taste test, putting on a skit, presenting a poster, giving a talk and conducting a question-and-answer session.

On Monday night, the results were in: the UW–Madison team took the first prize, along with a $4,000 cash prize. The team also made several contacts with companies that expressed interest in their product.

“We’re thrilled and excited that all of our hard work paid off,” says Rachel Prososki, a food science graduate student and leader of the team.

In addition to Healthy sTarts, the UW–Madison team unveiled another product at the IFT meeting: for the second year in a row, the students won a national contest sponsored by the California Almond Board to develop a product featuring almonds. Prososki and her group created “Cone-Coxions,” an almond-based mini waffle cone coated on the inside with dark chocolate and dusted with almond powder.

Wisconsin students on the team include: Leah Anderson, Chippewa Falls; Bradley Bolling, Burlington; Peter Weber, New Glarus. Kristen Blaschek is from Champaign, Ill., and Rachel Prososki is from Pine River, Minn. Other students include Carla Ryadi, Dawn Preston, Devi Wijaya, Laura Folts and Sivaraj Kaliappan.