An End to the Great Food Fight

In the experimental kitchen in the basement of the P&A building, twenty students in aprons are busy chopping, washing, and draining an assortment of colorful foods. But Dr. Margaret Condrasky R.D., associate professor in the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition and her Creative Inquiry students are interested in more than just making a tasty meal. With childhood obesity on the rise, these students are vigorously working to create a nutritious and delicious food products that will put children on the path to healthy eating.

It takes a lot to help kids to eat correctly. With the support of a grant from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Condrasky is leading a team of students from packaging science, nutrition and food technology majors to tackle this urgent problem. The Creative Inquiry students are tasked with creating food low in sodium, sugar, and fat but high in flavor and kid appeal. For this project, the students are given guidelines to create healthy food products.

“There is no single definition for what is considered healthy. We know what kids need so let’s make it and give them what they need, and make ingredients that they can taste and understand,” Condrasky said. The Creative Inquiry students are currently focused on creating whole grain, low-sodium and low-sugar foods.

For many of the students, it is their first time being in such a kitchen. Ashley Fowler, a packaging science major, believes this project is a great learning experience.

“I think it is a great opportunity to integrate different parts of food packaging because when we actually go out into the workforce, we will be working with different people and not just packaging,” she said. Students have the opportunity to create a product either for retail or for a food service sector such as school cafeterias. Graduate student and team leader Alexa Weeks believes the school food service system is struggling financially to support healthy food. One group of Creative Inquiry students is creating an entire weeks worth of healthy menu options for elementary school children.

This Creative Inquiry is unique in that it exposes sophomore level students to industry standard processes and machinery long before they take senior level classes. Students begin with the Stage Gate Process for Product Development by conducting a thorough market analysis to see if this idea seems to be something that the market would support. Students look at possible competition, as well as whether the product has the potential to be profitable.

The students begin by working in the culinary science research lab using basic ingredients that one could buy at a grocery store, and next move to working as they would in an industrial pilot kitchen. These ingredients are supplied from manufacturers that produce food items for food companies. This culinary project differs from other programs in that it integrates the packaging science elements early in the product development process. Packaging can affect food’s nutritional profile and these students focus on preserving nutrients.

“There are ways to maintain nutritional values through packaging. The fact that we are pulling these students together and sharing that with them at a young age means they are more aware of it and can help reduce loss of nutritional value,” Weeks said.

Students have gone to both Popeye’s and Denny’s headquarters to speak with industry professionals about food production.

“One of my goals is to help my students close the gap between academia and industry. If there is anything I can do to bridge that gap, that’s what I’m going to do,” Weeks said.

During a trip to Chastain Road Elementary, in Liberty, South Carolina, the Creative Inquiry students also had the opportunity to have children taste-test their creations. The children loved the dinosaur shaped cookies called “Dino Bites” created with zucchini and carrots, with around 140 calories in four cookies. Devaun Walker, a sophomore packaging science major and one of the Dino Bite creators, believes there are benefits to being a part of this Creative Inquiry.

“We are essentially set up as a research and development team, so that kind of exposure is what other students wouldn’t get. It’s a lot of independent work so it helps me grow gradually as a professional,” Walker said.