Two teams from the Food Science Department at Texas A&M University, the “Pulcers” and “Trigrano” won 2nd and 3rd places, respectively, in the recently concluded American Association of Cereal Chemists International (AACCIntl) Product Development Competition (PDC), held in Palm Springs, CA on October 16-19, 2011. Advisors to both teams were Dr. Joseph M. Awika and Dr. Lloyd W. Rooney. As winners, both teams will be featured in Cereal Foods World magazine. For more information about the competition, please visit AACCInt’s website at http://www.aaccnet.org/divisions/student/pdc.asp.
The Pulcers Team, composed of Frederico Barros, Archana Gawde, Liyi Yang, Victor Alban Taleon and Tom Jondiko, created bold, hearty, baked multigrain chips, and presented in four flavor: sea salt, barbeque, harvest cheddar, and sour cream-onion.
The Trigrano Team, composed of Leonnard O. Ojwang, Karla P. Siska, Taehoon Kim and Yunus E. Tuncil, created delicious, multigrain, gluten-free crackers and presented them in two flavors: Italian-herb and cinnamon.
The two main ingredients used in creating the chips and crackers were sorghum and black-eyed pea flours.
The AACCInt PDC is sponsored by food companies who are members of AACC Intl, and aims at enhancing students’ ability to apply the knowledge and skills acquired in school to create new food products professionally and showcase their creativity during the annual meeting to their peers, academic and industry professionals as well as other interested parties.
All teams from Texas A&M University had excellent performance against other universities and took two of the top three positions. They were also highly praised for their creativity in designing package prototypes, as well as creating healthy Grab-N-Go snacks using specially made black-eyed pea flour. The awards won from this competition have reinvigorated us to continue innovating novel consumer- winning food products and presenting our creativity in IFT and AACCIntl annual meetings.
An additional award went to Leonnard Odhiambo Ojwang, who won the Best Student Research Paper Competition hosted by the AACC International Professional Development Panel held on October 18, 2011 in Palm Springs, CA. Mr. Ojwang is advised by Dr. Joseph M. Awika, and his research paper was titled “Anti-inflammatory properties of cowpea phenotypes with different phenolic profiles.” As part of the winning price, Leonnard O. Ojwang has the opportunity to publish his paper in Cereal Chemistry, Cereal Foods World, or the Cereal Science Knowledge Database, as well as free student membership for one year.