Penn State students invent new snack for prestigious food contest. What to know
A team of Penn State students advanced to the finals of a prestigious food invention competition with their creation of a handheld snack inspired by local flavors. And they learned Tuesday night they earned an honorable mention.
Eight Penn State students collaborated to develop a healthier snack that was among the six finalists at the 36th Annual Institute of Food Technologists Student Association (IFTSA) and Mars Product Development Competition.
The team’s entry was what it dubbed a “ChiaFold,” a fiber-rich, regionally inspired handheld pastry snack that combines the familiarity of traditional handheld pies with the nutritional appeal of a clean-label, “better-for-you” product, said Janine Ganshorn, a first-year doctoral student in the Food Science Department at Penn State and captain of the ChiaFold production team.
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Penn State’s team, along with those from five other schools, including two in Canada, competed for a $3,000 grand prize and a mentorship opportunity with Mars Snacking, the snack division of global food company Mars, Inc., which sponsors the competition. The company is behind popular brands such as M&Ms, Snickers, Twix and Skittles.
Each team was tasked to develop a new food idea and take it through the stages of marketing and product development before pitching it to a panel of judges, who evaluate the product on a range of criteria.
Penn State’s end result, the ChiaFold, features a flaky, crispy pastry shell that measures about three inches by three inches when folded — roughly the size of a palm — and is filled with a gooey chia pudding center featuring the authentic, locally sourced pawpaw flavor.
Many factors were considered in coming up with the product. One of them was to incorporate regional ingredients, which led them to the pawpaw fruit that is the largest indigenous fruit to North America, Ganshorn said.
“It has this very like tropical flavor. A lot of people would say it is maybe pineapple, coconutty,” Ganshorn told the CDT. “There’s also like a custard note to it. It’s a very unusual flavor.”
The team faced sourcing challenges in developing the product outside of the pawpaw fruit’s harvesting season. They eventually found a supplier who was also a Penn State alumnus, helping them secure the key ingredient for their snack.
“I reached out to an acquaintance of mine in the food industry who’s another Penn State grad, and we were able to get flavors through that connection who supplied us with flavors to work with for our project.” Ganshorn said.
After diving deep into food trends and predicting where the food industry is heading in the future, the team ultimately decided to center their product around a fiber-rich serving of chia seeds and enfolded by a coconut flour pastry dough for added benefits, Ganshorn said.
The target audience would consist of young to middle-aged consumers who want the comfort of an indulgent pastry treat but with the added nutritional benefits of a high-fiber, clean-label snack.
Aligned with its clean-label approach, the product avoids artificial additives. It instead substitutes added colors with natural methods like egg wash to give the pastry its golden-brown finish, Ganshorn added.
Competition day results
The final stages of the competition were held at the IFT FIRST Annual Event and Expo from July 12-15 in Chicago. Each team presented their product through an oral presentation followed by a tasting session from expert panel judges who evaluate the products on factors including shelf life, profitability and flavor.
ChiaFold received an honorable mention, Ganshorn said. Judges provided positive feedback on the taste of the snack but pointed out technical and marketing challenges.
“The tasting did go quite well. We received a lot of positive feedback from the judges,” she said. “I think there were some technical challenges that we maybe could have handled a little bit differently. We didn’t have quite as much content on some of the statistics backing up our choices in terms of our marketing and our market segment. That was something that I think I noticed with other teams, that we did not have and that would have made us stand out a little bit more.”
Although the team does not plan to continue developing ChiaFold and alumni won’t find it at their local grocer anytime soon, Ganshorn said the competition was a valuable learning experience for the team and that they intend to apply the judges’ feedback as they prepare to compete again next year.
“I believe this product has now officially been retired, but we’re taking the learnings from this experience of what are the things that we should really be looking into and spending time on, and we’re starting a big game plan for next year and putting a team together,” Ganshorn added.
The Institute of Food Technologists Student Association (IFTSA), a student-governed community within the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT), has hosted the IFTSA and Mars Product Development Competition for 35 years. According to the organization, the competition gives students an opportunity to apply food science to real-world product development while building the skills needed for careers in the industry.
