Posted by Media-Newswire on April 24, 2008 at 11:34:35:
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Two teams of Purdue University students will vie for a $10,000 top prize Thursday (April 24) at the Sara Lee Innovation Award competition. The competition will begin at 1 p.m. in Purdue Memorial Union, Room 263.
(Media-Newswire.com) - WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Two teams of Purdue University students will vie for a $10,000 top prize Thursday ( April 24 ) at the Sara Lee Innovation Award competition.
The competition will begin at 1 p.m. in Purdue Memorial Union, Room 263.
The first innovation award competition was held in the spring of 2007, when the Sara Lee Corp. announced the partnership with Purdue. This year's qualifying teams have been working on their food inventions since the start of the fall semester.
"The Innovation Award is a valuable opportunity for our students to follow through on every aspect of bringing a new food product to market," said Connie Weaver, distinguished professor and head of Purdue's Department of Foods and Nutrition.
"The students must do market analysis to decide if their product will sell. They must work to ensure its taste and quality, and they must keep costs and mass production in mind. They also receive guidance from Sara Lee executives on how to make their product better."
Each team will have 45 minutes to present its invention to a panel of judges composed of Sara Lee executives and Purdue professors.
The product created by the winning team also could end up on store shelves. In addition to criteria meant to evaluate each item's innovation and originality, products will be judged on potential marketability.
Students from the sophomore to graduate level in four departments were eligible, including agricultural and biological engineering, foods and nutrition, food science, and hotel and tourism management.
Products were limited to Sara Lee's current product lines of bakery items, meats, sauces, dressings or coffee. Students will present finished products to the judges. The cooking of each item must be completed before the start of the contest.
Weaver said students were encouraged to form teams that represented as many of the eligible disciplines as possible.
"Forming interdisciplinary teams closely resembles the varied groups who work together in industry to bring new products to the grocery," Weaver said. "Our students benefit from the ability to work on a real-world challenge."
Weaver said one team plans to present a beverage-related pastry item, while the other has created a new snack food. Both teams have addressed nutritional concerns in their entries.