A team of food science students from Utah State University won the 2024 Idaho Milk Processors Association new product competition, held last week. They not only earned bragging rights, but $10,000, too, at IMPA’s annual meeting in Sun Valley, Idaho, for their grand-prize-winning new product idea — Caches Cookies, cookies with a dairy dip combo.
Sponsored by Dairy West and judged by leading dairy farmers and industry experts, the annual contest challenges universities with strong nutrition and food science programs to create the most promising new food product containing at least 50 percent dairy ingredients. Organizers say it connects motivated students to the dairy industry and provides them with an opportunity to grow, learn and gain leadership skills.
“The incredibly innovative ideas these students introduce each year are remarkable, and it’s very exciting for our industry,” new product competition chair Alan Reed says. “When we launched the competition 16 years ago, the teams were just suggesting basic, traditional dairy products and a few new flavors. Now we’re seeing true innovation, and collectively I think this is the best group of new products students have entered since we began the competition.”
Dr. Eric Bastian, vice president of industry relations for Dairy West and director of the Western Dairy Center at Utah State, concurs. “We always see outstanding product concepts in our competition. And I am increasingly impressed with the submissions that our students continue to make,” he said. “The dairy food science talent we have in our universities shows that there is substantial interest in dairy production, dairy manufacturing and dairy innovation.”
This year’s grand-prize winner, Utah State University, says its Cache’s Cookies were inspired by Italian cannoli. The combined cookie and Ricotta-based dip contains over 61% dairy ingredients, more than meeting the IMPA competition requirement for at least 50% of the product coming from dairy ingredients. The dip portion of the product is based on smoothed Ricotta blended
with cream cheese and milk chocolate chips. One serving of Cache’s Cookies provides six grams of protein and 15% of the daily vitamin A requirement along with 110 mg of calcium. The USU team also says that “Consumers like the spontaneity of picking up a small treat or dessert throughout their day. Cache’s Cookies are an indulgent and rich product but will still cater to consumers who are looking for a treat with a good source of Vitamin A and protein, matching current health trends.”
The Utah State team is comprised of Taelie Kennedy, Sarah Petmecky, Sam Clark, Abri Paez and Nabila Anjum with Dr. Prateek Sharma and Annalisa Jones as co-advisors.
Brigham Young University submitted Kefibars, which is a frozen nutrition bar that doubles as a dessert. BYU captured second place and $5,000. The team was comprised of Gabby Bean, Emma Lutz, Raj Jegannathan, Cecily Thomas, Katie Lemon, AJ Burton, Savannah Bradshaw and Dawson Carrol with Drs. Mike Dunn and Laura Jefferies as co-advisors.
South Dakota State University, which submitted a concept for Spicy Cheesy Cubes, created a snacking option using cheese cubes with natural seasonings with the cheese cubes being retort processed in glass jars without the cheese melting. SDSU captured third place, and the team walked away with $3,000. The team was comprised of Khushi Duby and Zeel Modi with Dr. Prafulla Salunke as the advisor.