Using three DuPont ingredients — dairy culture, antioxidant and natural antimicrobial — a team of food science students at the University won a $10,000 award for their cottage cheese.
DuPont, an innovative food science company, annually offers the Knowledge Award to college juniors, seniors and graduate students as an opportunity to present a new food or beverage concept and win $10,000.
The award’s purpose is to support food science innovation and strengthen the relationship between the company and universities.
More than 33 U.S. Food Science programs competed, but the University team’s cottage cheese product, “Medittage”, a cottage cheese made from fat-free milk with a Mediterranean dressing, was victorious.
Their formal product description states, “In Medittage, the dairy dressing is replaced by a Mediterranean style dressing containing extra-virgin olive and sunflower oils, chunky sundried tomatoes juliennes, pine nuts, fresh basil and rosemary, oregano, lemon juice, and garlic, seasoned with salt and black pepper.” It is ideal as a dip, dressing or ingredient and is high in protein.
The Nutrition and Food Sciences team include Ph.D candidates José Estrada, Kenneth Carabante, Namrata Karki and University alumna Samantha Stein.
The students learned of the competition through a DuPont ambassador who came to the University.
They were inspired to add rosemary to cottage cheese, and later added Mediterranean dressing and ran with it.
“A friend of ours, she thought it’d be interesting to add some rosemary to the cottage cheese in class. So she was walking past Wilson [Hall] and there’s a rosemary plant there,” Estrada said. “She grabbed a few leaves and a couple days later she gave us the trial and it was really good,”
Their advantage was the high protein cheese and low-fat milk — factors that are in demand in the food industry.
Representatives from this award-winning Nutrition and Food Sciences team presented their Medittage at the Prepared Food’s New Product Conference in Florida on Sept. 14.
“It was really great to represent LSU, there were about 15 universities represented from all over the country, including Cornell, Clemson, Wisconsin,” Estrada said. “Not enough people know about this at LSU.”
The food science program intends to participate again next year.
Estrada said he appreciated this experience because it was an opportunity to work and get exposure outside of the classroom environment.
“It’s a nice experience working with the different people on the technical things, like how the ingredient works and behaves,” Estrada said.
Requirements to compete in this competition include being a junior, senior or graduate student at a U.S. four-year accredited college with a declared major in food science or a related field. Participants may compete as individuals or as a team, and must use at least two of the DuPont products in their innovative recipe.