“Mooofins,” a dairy-based, high-protein breakfast food was announced as the winner in the annual New Product Competition at the American Dairy Science Association (ADSA) annual meeting in July. The contest was hosted by the Dairy Research Institute, which primarily is funded through the national dairy checkoff program. Open to undergraduate and graduate students in the U.S. and Canada, this year’s competition challenged student teams to develop a new dairy-based product for morning meals.
All members on the winning team major in Food Science in the College of Agricultural Sciences at Pennsylvania State University. They were Andrew Elder, sophomore; Anthony Herdzik, junior; Shaina Melnick, sophomore; Jared Smith, graduate student; Kelsey Rodgers, senior; Kenny Vogel, sophomore; and Megan Woo, senior.
The team spent more than 50 hours in planning over the course of the competition to conduct research, develop the marketing presentation, and host consumer focus groups.
“We hosted two focus groups to try the product and evaluate the concept — specifically labeling and nutrition,” said team member Megan Woo. “It made us aware of how people look at sodium and how our product compared to other breakfast foods.”
The end product was Mooofins, a dairy-based, quiche-like muffin developed for health conscious adults seeking a high-protein, on-the-go breakfast item that is packed with dairy, including cottage cheese, yogurt, milk, whey and nonfat dried milk. Together they make up 70 percent of the total ingredients used in the formulation.
“We chose cottage cheese because many people do not eat cottage cheese but it is high in protein,” Woo said. “We wanted to incorporate cottage cheese in a way that people would like it more. It’s used differently than the other ingredients because you can actually see the little curds in the product but you can’t taste it.”
The team developed three flavor options that reflect popular breakfast tastes including blueberry sausage, maple bacon cheddar and bell pepper mushroom.
The team is hoping for some commercial interest from food marketing companies. PD
—From Mid-Atlantic Dairy Association
PHOTO
FROM LEFT: Mooofins team members Megan Woo, Shaina Melnick, Andrew Elder, Anthony Herdzikand Kenny Vogel present their product via poster to potential investors at the American Dairy Science Association annual meeting in Indianapolis in July. Team members not pictured are Jared Smith and Kelsey Rodgers. Photo courtesy of Mid-Atlantic Dairy Association.
