A vegan, low allergy frozen dessert and instant millet noodles have won the top prizes in the 2011 Department of Agriculture and Food Western Australia (DAFWA) Student Food and Beverage Product Development Awards.
The awards aim to recognise and encourage food science and technology students to create innovative food products with Western Australian ingredients.
Now in its third year, the awards are the result of a collaboration between Curtin University’s food science and technology program and the DAFWA food technology unit.
Dr Mark Sweetingham, Director of Grain Industry Development at DAFWA, who presented the awards to the winning student teams, said he was impressed with the students’ creativity.
“It is inspiring to see Curtin’s food science students pushing the boundaries by developing products that are not only unique, but also consider the needs of future customers,” Dr Sweetingham said.
“The ‘I Scream Oats Frozen Dessert Sandwich’ is ideal for the allergen-free market, as it contains no dairy ingredients, eggs, nuts or gluten. The ‘Milletilicious Instant Noodle’ is a low-fat, nutritious product that can be easily cooked in two minutes for people that are on the run.”
Dr Ranil Coorey of Curtin’s School of Public Health said he was delighted with the variety of new products the students had developed.
“From desserts, noodles, jams, cakes and healthy snack foods, the students have been very original with their product ideas, many of which could be taken further and commercialised,” Dr Coorey said.
“They have also shown a great level of skill and maturity over this semester and will perform extremely well in the food industry as professionals.”
The team winners of this year’s Undergraduate Award for the ‘I Scream Oats Frozen Dessert Sandwich’ were Gary Tan, Kahyen Lam, Novia Rahardjo, Yasmin Yusuf and Priscilla Pedersen. Each student was presented with a $150 cash prize.
The recipients of the Postgraduate Award for the ‘Milletilicious Instant Noodle’ were Aneth Msemwa and Shaoyuan Wang, who each received a $300 cash prize.
Other pioneering products reviewed for the Awards included a chia and honey breakfast bar, lupin muesli bites, sorghum cake, carrot jam, red bean ice cream dim sims and a banana and date fruit leather.
The Awards are proudly sponsored by DAFWA and were held on Thursday 20 October at Curtin’s Bentley Campus.
Contact
Kristy Jones, Public Relations, Curtin University
Tel: 08 9266 9085, Mobile: 0402 517 300, Email: k.jones@curtin.edu.au
