Louisville, Kentucky USA – DDW, The Color House is pleased to announce this year’s first place winners of the Natural Coloring Competition for Students and the recipients of a $2,500 cash prize. The winners are Mary Angela Daum (Team Captain) and Max Van Tassell from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with their project “Mystical Lemon Berry Blush,” a color-changing novelty gelato. The gelato, which was formulated with anthocyanin pigments, demonstrated a change in color from purple to bright pink caused by a pH reduction when a lemon powder containing citric acid was applied.
Team Captain Angie Daum is currently in her first year of graduate study, focusing on microbiology in the Food Science and Human Nutrition curriculum. Her research centers on contamination issues in ethanol fermentation. After earning her Master’s Degree in Food Science, she hopes to work in product development, specifically frozen desserts. Max Van Tassell is a 5th-year PhD student pursuing a degree in Food Science and Human Nutrition. He studies Food Microbiology by investigating antimicrobial interventions for various food systems and hopes to pursue a research career focused on improving the safety and quality of the food supply.
The team will be presented their award at the 2015 IFT Annual Meeting and Food Expo during the University of Illinois Reception on Sunday, July 12th, and their poster will be displayed at DDW’s Booth #1914 at IFT.
Second place winners and recipients of $1,000 cash prize are Peipei Tang (Team Captain), Xiaoyi Zhu, Jungxin Guo, Sravanti Paluri, and Yafei Han of The Ohio State University with their project “Fruit Cyclone Cookies.” Their project focused on the development of naturally colored fruit-flavored swirl cookies marketed toward children. They used a chilling process to produce a firm swirl pattern in the cookies and to minimize color bleeding. In order to protect and stabilize the vulnerable color pigments during baking, the team used lime juice and optimal cooking temperatures. Team Captain Peipei Tang is a PhD Student in the Department of Food Science and Technology at The Ohio State University. His research focuses on anthocyanin stability and its application in food. He is currently investigating the co-pigmentation of anthocyanin and flavonoid.
Third place and a $500 cash prize is awarded to Emily Wagener (Team Captain), Martina Buchholz, Anuj Purohit, and Elizabeth Carr with their project “Biscuitables,” snack-sized biscuits that provide half a serving of vegetables in each serving. This snack was formulated to be a healthy, naturally-colored, allergen-free, gluten-free alternative snack for children. Emily Wagener is the Food Science Industry Extension Graduate Assistant at the University of Georgia in Athens. Her thesis work at UGA focuses on the development of pecan butters with varied oil contents.
DDW will begin accepting proposals for the 2015-2016 Natural Coloring Competition on September 1st, 2015. For more information on how to enter, please visit www.ddwcolor.com/studentcompetition.
DDW’s mission is to enhance the visual appeal of food and beverages. DDW, The Color House: Mother Nature supplies the raw materials while DDW adds 150 years of coloring expertise. It is a brilliant partnership that offers a complete range of natural colors, caramel colors, and burnt sugars with the stability your application needs. Collaborate with our application scientists for a custom blend or choose an existing hue from our broad portfolio of natural colors. Visit us online at www.ddwcolor.com and follow us on Twitter @ddwcolor.
Source: DDW