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Four Fresno State food nutrition and science students were honored with a second-place honor in a national food innovation contest sponsored by Dairy Management Inc. for their high-protein ice cream using a cottage cheese base and cherry cheesecake flavoring.  

Over the course of the 2022-23 academic year, graduate student Joanie Snow worked with graduate student Wonsun You and seniors Aiden Medalssi and Lauren Davis to develop their 'Cottage Core' product in campus food science and nutrition labs.

The contest challenged students to develop a dairy product that had calming properties and would appeal to a younger generation of consumers.  

The quartet received a $5,000 award at the annual Institute of Food Technologists national conference in Chicago in July for their premium tart cherry cheesecake ice cream they developed in campus labs.

Three of the students began working on the project in a dairy processing class in the fall of 2022 taught by Dr. Carmen Licon. Medalssi, who wasn’t in the class, heard about the idea in a separate food science sensory evaluation class, and volunteered to join the project.

After researching the dairy industry and potential products, ingredients and nutritional aspects, the group submitted an initial written proposal for the idea to event organizers last January.

Six semifinalists were then selected from across the nation to send 18 actual serving samples to DMI, and any other data tied to sensory data, ingredient specification and create online presentations last April.

The students began by choosing a curdless, cottage cheese ice cream base, which they had found in a handful of dairy products. The alternative core ingredient can be healthier than traditional, milk-only ice cream base can offer higher levels of protein, probiotics, antioxidants and fiber. 

They also added enriched whey concentrate to boost levels of protein and other bioactive compounds such as proteins, lipids and carbohydrate molecules. These agents have been found to potentially reduce stress and hypertension, improve immunity and sleep, and are sought after as high-value food ingredients.

Whey extract concentrate also boosted the product’s levels of tryptophan. The amino acid is found in dairy products, and is used by the body to produce melatonin and serotonin, which help regulate sleep-wake cycles.

Other dairy ingredients that further met these qualities included heavy cream, milk and skim milk powder, which gave their finished product 10 grams of protein per serving. That amount equaled 20 percent of the FDA national daily recommendation and doubled the contest’s minimum standard. 

To improve the taste, they chose a tart cherry jam flavoring to mix into the product. It was a natural pairing since the product already had a cheesecake-like taste, thick consistency, and creamy taste, and cherries naturally contain melatonin.  

To choose the best cherry flavor, the group tested 27 participants in the Olam Sensory Lab in the Jordan Agricultural Research Center on campus last spring. Preferences were compared between three ice cream samples with cherry jam, cherry syrup or canned cherries. The jam flavoring returned the most favorable response rate in its taste, appearance and mouth feel.

In prior years, Davis had also spent time working in a similar sensory testing process for her Jordan College Honors Cohort senior project. She used consumer sensory testing to try and develop a chocolate-dipped ice cream bar made from a frozen cottage cheese product. 

To create their final consumer-level product, the students consulted with a variety of industry members to help formulate their recipe. 

The team also sourced key ingredients that were donated from food processing industry suppliers Hilmar Cheese (whey protein), while CP Kelco (protein stabilizer), Danisco (guar gum and locust bean which served as thickeners), Firmenich (cheesecake flavoring) were out of the region.

The competition was won by a University of Wisconsin-River Falls student team. Their RootCurd soft pudding product used ginger and lavender for its calming properties and was based on a traditional Chinese recipe.

Kansas State University students placed third with their Sip to Soothe beverage that was inspired by chaas, a traditional Indian, buttermilk beverage.

The Jordan College’s recent focus on dairy product innovation is shared by the campus Institute for Food and Agriculture, which leads the Pacific Coast Coalition-Dairy Business Innovation Initiative that was created in 2021. The USDA Agricultural Marketing Service has awarded $24 million in grants to the program to encourage business, product and workforce innovation and includes collaboration with the California Dairy Innovation Center and seven other universities in California, Oregon and Washington