Note to editors and news directors:
Faculty advisor Harmit Singh, professor of nutritional science at
Cal State L.A., may be reached at (323) 343-5334,
hsingh2@calstatela.edu.
____
Cal
State L.A.’s ‘choccoli’ wins
San
Gabriel Valley quartet makes up nutritional science team
Los Angeles, CA
– Have children who won’t eat their vegetables? Maybe you should try “choccoli.”
Developed by a team of graduate students at Cal State L.A.,
the “choccoli” creation mixes vegetable powder into chocolate to make
nutritious chocolate-covered strawberries, chocolate chip cookies
and chocolate candies. The innovation earned Cal State L.A. first
place in the recent
SCIFTS (Southern California Institute of Food Technologists Section)
Student Product Development Competition.
The CSULA team, presented a gold award of $1,500,
includes nutritional science majors Liz Estavillo (Duarte
resident), June Gant (Covina resident), Maria Odono
(Monterey Park resident) and Olivia Tzou (Alhambra resident).
According to Estavillo, “The judges said they were very
impressed with our product, and stated that we had ‘blown-away’ the
competition. The Whole Foods Market in Tustin then approached us and
offered to carry our ‘product’ in their market, if we choose to
manufacture it!”
Harmit Singh, professor of nutritional science at Cal State
L.A., said, “Everyone in the competition was really talking about our
product and presentation. This team worked really hard and coordinated
very well, and we see the results. The idea is to develop new product to
increase vegetable consumption among American population.”
“The chocolate,” Singh explained, “helps mask the smell of the
vegetables and hides the taste for people who are resistant to eating
their vegetables.” He indicated that vegetables are important sources of
many nutrients, such as dietary fiber, folic acid, potassium, and
vitamins A, C and E.
Cal State L.A. competed against three
other universities—Chapman University, Cal State Long Beach, and Cal
Poly San Luis Obispo—which have well-established food science
departments.
Sponsored by Whole Foods and Disney, the competition sought
proposals for new food products. Judges evaluated the potential success
of the entries in today’s market and the technical problem- solving
skills used in product development.
This fall, Cal State L.A.’s School of Kinesiology and Nutritional
Science will launch a new Bachelor of Science program in food science
and technology. It will prepare students for careers in the food science
and technology industry. There are 15 $3,000 scholarships from the U.S.
Department of Agriculture available to students who enroll in the
program. For more details about the food science and technology program
at Cal State L.A., go to
http://www.calstatela.edu/dept/pe/.
For more about the “choccoli” entry and the competition,
contact Singh at (323) 343-5334.
# # #
Working for California since 1947: The 175-acre hilltop campus of California State University, Los Angeles is at the heart of a major metropolitan city, just five miles from Los Angeles’ civic and cultural center. More than 20,000 students and 205,000 alumni—with a wide variety of interests, ages and backgrounds—reflect the city’s dynamic mix of populations. Six colleges offer nationally recognized science, arts, business, criminal justice, engineering, nursing, education and humanities programs, among others, led by an award-winning faculty. Cal State L.A. is home to the critically-acclaimed Luckman Jazz Orchestra and to a unique university center for gifted students as young as 12.
Programs that provide exciting enrichment opportunities to students and community include an NEH- and Rockefeller-supported humanities center; a NASA-funded center for space research; and a growing forensic science program, housed in the Hertzberg-Davis Forensic Science Center. www.calstatela.edu
gold award in food competition
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