Competing for a Cause
by Mary Ellen Kuhn
International and domestic student teams will vie for top honors in the Developing Solutions for Developing Countries competition, now in its second year. The finals will take place on Monday, July 19, from 9 a.m. to noon in McCormick Place, Room S404abc.
This IFT Student Association competition requires student teams to apply scientific skills and innovative thinking to create products and/or processes that can improve the quality of life for people in developing nations. In the 2010 challenge, student teams were asked to “use food science and technology to provide sustainable, nutritious, and affordable food for families with small children.”
Here’s a quick look at what the finalist teams—three international and three domestic—have cooked up for the final competition.
International Finalists
• Brawijaya University, East Java, Indonesia — Artificial rice made from arrow root and cassava, enriched with cowpea protein and other nutrients designed to help fight malnutrition in Indonesia.
• Bogor Agricultural University, Indonesia — Energy-dense, baked cassava flakes created to help fight the problem of protein deficiencies in the province of East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia.
• Bogor Agricultural University, Indonesia — Zuper T, a triple-mix puffed cereal formulated from tempe (a fermented soy product), corn, and bananas targeted to school-age Indonesian children for consumption as a breakfast food or snack.
Domestic Finalists
• University of Minnesota — Shakti, a granola-type bar composed of puffed millet, jaggery, soy flour, roasted peanuts, peanut butter, and spices and enriched with vitamin A, designed to provide impoverished families in India with an easy nutritional boost.
• North Carolina State University — Famille Saine, a fermented, fortified, and dehydrated shelf-stable, porridge-type family meal created to help address macronutrient and micronutrient deficiencies among residents of Niger, Africa.
• Pennsylvania State University — CalciMelo, a calcium-rich confection targeted to families with small children in low-income Peruvian communities and designed to increase bio-availability of calcium.
The Developing Solutions for Developing Countries competition is sponsored in part by General Mills, with additional support from McCormick.
Watch for an announcement of the competition winners in IFTLive.