IFT’s Wellness Check-Up

Miriam Nelson on reversing childhood obesity

Most Americans eat too much and exercise too little, which has translated into a national obesity epidemic with serious public health ramifications and a broad array of challenges for the food and beverage industry. Nonetheless, several presenters at IFT’s annual Wellness Conference held in Chicago late in February, found reasons for optimism as they analyzed consumers’ attitudes and behavior and industry initiatives relating to diet and health.

“I think we’re really at a tipping point, a real inflection point with changing culture and values around food, nutrition, and physical activity,” said Miriam Nelson, Director of the John Hancock Research Center on Physical Activity, Nutrition, and Obesity Prevention at Tufts University.

Nelson did not sugarcoat her assessment of the nation’s public health crisis. “When we look at the American diet over the past 40 years, for the most part what we see is more calories, more added sugar,” she said.

Two new studies suggest the public health picture may be brightening a bit, however. “I think we’re actually making some really good headway,” Nelson said, citing findings from a just-released National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) that tracked caloric intake among youths ages 2–19 between 1999 and 2010. According to the NHANES data, boys’ caloric intake decreased by 158 calories/day over the period, and girls consumed 76 fewer calories per day on average.

Nelson also pointed to encouraging findings from a new Hudson Institute study that compared food servings, customer traffic, and sales in 21 restaurant chains in 2006 and 2011. By all three metrics, those chains that had increased their menus of lower-calorie servings performed better than those that had decreased lower-calorie servings. The findings are not definitive, but “it does look as if the restaurants that are offering more lower-calorie options are actually doing better,” said Nelson. 

Nelson said she was further heartened by steps she’s seen the food industry take to develop more healthful product portfolios and to work in partnership with public sector health advocacy organizations. “If we all work together—and we understand each other’s language—then we can make a difference,” said Nelson.

Teens share their opinions on nutrition

Teens Talk Diet and Health 
Comments from a group of Chicago area teenagers who took part in a panel discussion on the opening day of the conference might also be viewed in a positive light by those seeking to gauge Americans’ diet and nutrition IQ. The teens were asked to share insights into the kinds of food choices they make on a daily basis and also to evaluate the relative healthfulness of a variety of packaged foods and beverages. Although not all of the teenagers’ comments  reflected an accurate knowledge of nutrition, their interest in making healthful food choices came across loud and clear.

“I want to live till I’m old so I think you have to take care of yourself,” shared one young woman, who estimated that she makes good food choices about 95% of the time.

“After a while you begin to notice what makes you feel better,” another teen observed. “If you eat it, and it makes you feel better, you’re going to eat it again.”

The insights the teen panelists offered aligned with findings from a survey of 600 15–17-year-olds that research firm HealthFocus International conducted in partnership with IFT and unveiled at Wellness 13.

In the survey, 75% of the girls polled agreed or strongly agreed with the statement “Health is important, and I know that what I do now matters, so I try to take steps every day to be healthy.” Among the boys, 67% agreed or strongly agreed with the statement.

The customized research project was designed to provide a better understanding of the way teens view the world and spend their time and also to explore their interest in nutrition, health, and wellness, explained HealthFocus International’s Barbara Katz, who presented some of the findings and who helped moderate the teen panel.

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For boys, eating right topped the list of steps taken for health reasons. For girls, it came in second to spending time taking care of their skin. (See Table 1 for more details.)

The survey underscored the emphasis teens place on the way a snack tastes—even when it’s a healthy snack. Asked to identify what product attribute is most important in defining healthy snacks, “something that meets my craving at the moment” ranked first, identified by 16% of the respondents; 13% cited the attribute “natural.”

Overall, the teens HealthFocus polled came across as upbeat and worldly: 74% said they had a positive outlook on the future, and 66% said they had a diverse group of friends from many ethnic backgrounds. More than a quarter (27%) reported that they had traveled overseas.

Benchmarking Nutritional Advances
Offering comments designed to highlight and build upon some of the messages of the Wellness 13 conference, closing session presenter Lu Ann Williams of Innova Market Insights shared some positive nutritional benchmarks—facts and figures that suggest that consumers and food companies are advancing further along the path toward a more healthful food supply.

Consumers are concerned about the sodium and sugar content of their food, Williams pointed out, and then followed up with some examples of the ways in which food companies have responded to those concerns. In 2005, according to Innova Market Insights data, U.S. soup products launched into the marketplace contained an average of 0.72 g of sodium per 100 g, but by 2012 that average had declined 18% to 0.59 g of sodium per 100 g of soup.

Often, Williams said, companies are opting to roll out lower-sodium and lower-sugar product options with little or no fanfare, preferring a “stealth approach” to reformulation. H.J. Heinz reduced sodium in its classic ketchup by 15% and lowered the sugar content by 8.5% between 2005 and 2012. The average sugar content in new yogurt product launches tracked by Innova Market Insights (www.innovadatabase.com) decreased by 38% from 19.5 g per 100 g to 12.0 g per 100 g between 2005 and 2012, Williams reported.

When companies offer products with clear health benefits, consumers have responded, Williams emphasized. Sales of Wonderful pistachios, which contain just 0.16 g of sodium per 100 g, topped $100 million in 2010, Williams reported. In the same year, Tropicana’s Trop 50 vitamin-fortified orange juice beverage with half the sugar and calories of regular orange juice racked up sales of $75 million. All natural Nature’s Pride bread was purchased by more than 10% of U.S. households and achieved sales of $80 million in 2010, Williams continued. And Chobani, the “game-changing” company that brought the Greek yogurt category to life in the U.S. marketplace over the course of the past five years is closing in on $1 billion in annual sales. “Health is selling,” Williams summarized.

Michael Smith on WebMD's top food stories

Consumers Make the Diet and Health Connection
A number of the sessions at the Wellness 13 conference focused on data and research that assess the state of human health, identify critical issues, and determine whether progress is near. During the session “Year in Health—What Mattered Most to Consumers,” Michael Smith of WebMD emphasized the indelible link between food and health while outlining the most popular topics on WebMD. Smith said that stories covering food and health constituted the most shared on WebMD. Among the most popular were articles on the truth about belly fat, the benefits of flaxseed, the top iron-rich foods, and the dangers of certain weight-loss diets and strategies. Visitors to the website are very interested in obtaining expert advice for a balanced, healthier lifestyle, and Smith revealed that more than 70% of them are willing to pay more for products that benefit their health. Consequently, one of the most prominent trending issues on WebMD was convenient meals. Consumers want to prepare healthy, nutritious meals in 30 minutes or less and are seeking ways to increase the flavor of food without adding extra salt, fat, and sugar. “Eating is an experience for some of us. So they’re really interested in keeping that experience but making it healthier,” Smith said. Other food trends Smith revealed include the surge in the popularity of Greek yogurt, locally sourced food, farmers’ markets, and the vilification of high fructose corn syrup and gluten: “Gluten seems to be the maligned food ingredient of the year,” Smith said.

The top ten topics on WebMD focused mostly on medicine and health care, but two of the topics encompassed issues that have become ubiquitous to modern lifestyles: obesity, the dangers of prolonged sitting, and the food and beverages associated with poor health. “Our complex lifestyles have just really  hanged how we engage with our environment, creating a whole host of problems that are largely stemming from people being overweight. We’re even seeing more cancers because certain types of cancer are related to an unhealthy lifestyle,” Smith said. In particular, he discussed the emergence in children of conditions such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and gallstones, which are normally associated with poor lifestyle choices in adulthood. “The [rate] of diabetes [is] just skyrocketing, and in kids we think it might quadruple in the next four years if the trend continues.” Smith said. The main causes for the occurrence of these illnesses in children are overweight and obesity.

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Addressing the Issue of Childhood Obesity
The discussion of childhood obesity continued during the session “Engaging the Private Sector to End Childhood Obesity,” presented by Tufts University’s Nelson. Over the past two decades, the rate of obesity among children ages 2–5 years has doubled, the rate has quadrupled among 5- to 12-year-olds, and it has tripled in 12- to 18-year-olds. Although these figures are alarming, they are not the main reasons society has taken a great interest in childhood obesity. According to Nelson, environmental, economic, and national security factors are driving society’s interest in this epidemic. From an environmental standpoint, feeding the world cannot be accomplished unless it is done in a sustainable manner. She also pointed out that because people are heavier, more fuel is being manufactured and purchased to run automobiles. Overweight and obesity are responsible for an increase in fuel use of one billion gallons per year. The elevation in fuel consumption also has economic ramifications: Heavier passengers cost $40 billion a year in extra fuel charges.

Overweight and obesity are also wreaking havoc on the cost of health care. In the United States, obesity generates $160 billion in direct health-care costs every year, Nelson said. Diseases and conditions linked to obesity are numerous and obvious, but a less obvious problem related to obesity concerns national security. According to Nelson, 26% of potential recruits for the armed services are ineligible for service because “they are literally too fat to fight.” The American diet consists of more calories, more added sugar, more refined grains, more meat, and more sodium than ever before. As a consequence, less than 5% of Americans meet the guidelines for physical activity and diet. Poor diets and inactive lifestyles “are having a profound effect on our worldwide competitiveness,” Nelson said. “Clearly, something somewhere went terribly wrong over the last 40 years.” Americans’ low consumption of fresh or frozen vegetables and failure to engage in 150 minutes of moderate physical activity every week are significant factors. Another substantial factor is Americans’ agricultural emphasis and dietary reliance on meat and meat products. “In fact, this country is about 10 million acres shy of cultivation of fruits and vegetables
to enable all Americans to meet the guidelines for five fruits and vegetables a day. We produce far more other types of foods. I think that production has an impact on what we eat,” she said.   

Nelson confided that she had begun to question her life’s work in nutrition and health. But the new NHANES data indicating changes in children’s calorie consumption have given her hope. Nelson attributed these changes to Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move!” campaign as well as the revamping of school lunches to include more vegetables, fruits, and whole grains. “Energy balance is energy balance. It really does come down to energy expenditure and energy intake,” she said.

The NHANES data may be early indicators of a reversal in adverse health trends, yet Nelson knows that more needs to be done, particularly by the private sector. She highlighted the Institute of Medicine’s proposals to accelerate the prevention of childhood obesity: 1) make physical activity an integral and routine part of life; 2) create food and beverage environments that ensure the ease and convenience of making healthy choices; 3) transform messages about physical activity and nutrition; 4) expand the role of healthcare providers, insurers, and employers in obesity prevention; and 5) make schools a national focal point for obesity prevention. Many of these suggestions are exemplified in a project by Campbell Soup Company to reduce childhood obesity and hunger by 50% by the year 2020. The company is shifting its product portfolio to incorporate better nutrition and has given health and wellness presentations in Camden, N.J., and Norwalk, Conn. The company also has worked to increase community access to fresh fruits and vegetables. Reversing the trend of childhood obesity involves engaging and empowering the private sector to accelerate the collective impact of all stakeholders, Nelson said. Through the national project ChildObesity180, Nelson is working with the private sector to help make vegetables, fruits, and water more accessible to children outside of school.

Britt Burton-Freeman on gut microbiota

The Role of Gastrointestinal Microbes
Other Wellness 13 sessions focused on the health and wellness of adults rather than that of children. During the session “The Greatest Wealth Is Microbes: The Critical Role of Microbiota in Healthy Aging,” Britt Burton-Freeman of the Illinois Institute of Technology’s Institute for Food Safety and Health discussed emerging data on the role of the human gastrointestinal tract in healthy aging. Aging is the result of a complex set of processes that render the body less able to complete normal functions, which eventually culminates in death. In the realm of neuroscience, aging is characterized by progressive losses in neuronal function along with declines in cognitive performance. In the vascular domain, aging involves decreases in normal biological functions such as reduced cardiovascular capacity and metabolism. Burton-Freeman said that premature aging is a consequence of certain stressors such as smoking, excessive consumption of alcohol, and a lack of physical activity. A poor diet, another stressor, promotes premature aging by causing increased oxidative stress and inflammation and decreased endothelial function and insulin sensitivity.

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Burton-Freeman said there are ten times more microbial cells in the human body than any other cell types. Each person’s microbiome is distinctive like a fingerprint, but the diversity of each individual’s gastrointestinal microbiota is what determines effectiveness. Although there is still much to learn about the bacteria colonizing the gastrointestinal tract, Burton-Freeman said that scientists have determined that dysfunctional microbiota are associated with several chronic conditions: obesity, metabolic syndrome, inflammatory bowel disease, atherosclerosis, type 2 diabetes, and allergies. In an effort to define what constitutes a healthy microbiome, the National Institutes of Health have identified 1,000 species and 7,000 strains of microorganisms in the human gastrointestinal tract. A healthy gut microbiome is dependent on stability and diversity; greater stability and diversity equate with better health. The microbiome appears to change with age, Burton-Freeman said, with the most significant changes occurring between 75 and 80 years of age. However, a link between healthy microbiota and longevity is still speculative at this time. Longitudinal studies are necessary to characterize microbiome transitions associated with aging.

Penny Kris-Etherton on consuming healthy oils

Diet is one of the factors that determine not only the health of microbiota but also that of other biological functions. During the session “Fatty Acids: A Perfect Proportion Paradigm,” Penny Kris-Etherton of Pennsylvania State University discussed the merits of two diets that have been deemed beneficial to human health: Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) and the Mediterranean diet. Both diets incorporate vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and unsaturated fats. Research studies indicate that monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats have positive effects on cardiovascular biomarkers, decreasing serum lipids and blood pressure. Kris-Etherton recommended replacing saturated fats in food formulations with unsaturated fats.

Even though research studies make clear that unsaturated fats are superior to saturated fats in terms of health outcomes, Mary LaGuardia of Dow AgroSciences pointed out that replacing saturated fats with unsaturated fats is not simple. Chemical properties (e.g., oxidation stability) and physical properties (e.g., solid vs liquid) of the two types of fats are very different. Oxidation negatively impacts foods, and saturated fats have much lower oxidation rates than monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats. Thus, food products made with unsaturated fats have a short shelf life, rapidly transitioning to rancid. Hydrogenation is helpful in increasing oil stability, but it creates trans fats, which are highly detrimental to health. LaGuardia said that certain chemical additives can help stabilize unsaturated fats by changing the fatty acid profile of unsaturated oils. In addition, three unsaturated oils—canola, sunflower, and soybean—have demonstrated more stability than other unsaturated oils.

The efforts of policymakers and food professionals to make food healthier and more accessible to the public are laudable, but none of it is effective unless consumers make a conscious choice to eat healthier. During the session “Sequencing the Mind’s Health and Wellness Message Genomes,” Kantha Shelke of Corvus Blue LLC said that the messages and purposes that policymakers and food manufacturers launch and promote are not necessarily received by consumers in the way intended. The all-time high interest in controlling what consumers eat correlates with an all-time low in consumers’ understanding of what’s in their food. Shelke said that consumers are largely ignorant about what is good for them. Moreover, making the lifestyle switch from eating everything one wants to eating a healthy diet is very difficult for most consumers, she said. Complicating matters even more is the fact that what works for one person may not work for another. Mind genomics is the science of identifying the specific messaging that will assist consumers in making better food choices. More succinctly, it is individualized messaging for better health.

Batool Batalvi of SB&B Marketing Research elaborated further on the concept of mind genomics. She said that the term “wellness” has distinct connotations for different people, describing it as a man-made concept that is more of a perception than a reality. Human behavior and perception are determined by two brain types. Humans relying on the system 1 brain are quick to judge, instinctive, intuitive, emotional, and largely unconscious. Those relying on the system 2 brain are slow to judge, methodical, logical, learned, and conscious. Most humans fall into system 1 and thus use emotion, instinct, and intuition to make decisions. Humans thus tend to rationalize after making decisions, not before. This explains why despite all the availability of authoritative advice on healthy living and healthful eating, consumers continue to make poor choices. More importantly, most humans utilize cultural norms and experiences to form perceptions.

So although the food industry is often deemed responsible for the negative food choices and poor health of consumers, clearly a good deal of responsibility lies with consumers and their inherent behavioral predisposition. More-conscious consumers are inclined to make healthy food choices and engage in physical activity while lessconscious consumers are likely to make poor dietary choices and lead more sedentary lives. No amount of policymaking and food tinkering can overcome an individual’s instinctive or natural tendencies.

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Eric Decker on the value of processed foods

Giving Processed Foods Their Due
Eric Decker would like to see processed foods get a little more respect. Decker, who is head of the Dept. of Food Science at the University of Massachusetts, spoke on the topic “Can Processed Foods Contribute to a Healthy Diet?” at Wellness 13.

Decker’s answer to the question posed in his session title is an unambiguous “yes.” Given that belief, he’d also like to see the food industry do a better job of educating consumers about the benefits of processed foods.

Helping consumers arrive at an understanding of what it means to “process” foods might be a good place to start. “One example I give is a cereal grain,” he said. “If you have a cereal grain by itself, it’s non-digestible, has no nutritional benefits, but once that cereal grain is processed, it becomes a very nutritious, very important part of our diet.

“Not all processed foods are created equal,” he observed, later adding that “if you pick the right processed foods, you can have an incredibly healthy diet and still have all these benefits.

“A great example is frozen vegetables,” he pointed out. “Frozen vegetables are just as healthy as fresh vegetables, and they’re much cheaper.”

In addition to being convenient and cost-effective, processed foods can help ensure that the population avoids under consumption of important nutrients, Decker said. He cited the example of omega-3 fatty acids—which are associated with health benefits such as reduced inflammation and decreased incidence of sudden cardiac death—via functional foods. Large segments of the population are under consuming omega-3s, Decker said, partly because most people don’t eat enough seafood to achieve recommended consumption levels. Decker said that a clinical trial he conducted with University of Massachusetts colleague Julian McClements and John Coupland and Bob Roberts of Pennsylvania State University demonstrated that the participants were receptive to the taste of yogurt fortified with omega-3s.

“If we’re going to make people healthier, we have to do three things: We’ve got to make it taste good and [ensure that] it’s a good value and it’s convenient,” Decker emphasized.

Targeting Passionate Health Enthusiasts
Meeting the needs of “hardcore healthy” consumers—those who are passionately devoted to the pursuit of a healthy lifestyle—isn’t easy, but it can be rewarding. To develop products that resonate with hardcore health enthusiasts requires a research methodology that differs from the tactics used in developing products for mainstream consumers, presenters Judy Lindsey and Bryson Bolton of Product Dynamics, a consumer insight, sensory research, and product design company, and a division of RQA Inc., told Wellness 13 conference attendees in a session titled “Healthy Engagement: Modifications and Methods to Assure the Product Development Process Fully Assimilates and Engages the Target Health-Oriented Consumer.”

This consumer segment is “tough to please,” Bolton acknowledged. “They are the bellwether in most markets,” he continued. “They are the consumers who are a year or two ahead. They show us where the mainstream is probably headed.”

Because traditional focus groups aren’t always effective with this group, Product Dynamics implemented a research design that incorporated smartphone technology. For the project, members of a 20-person sample group downloaded an app that allowed the researchers to interact with them over the course of a week. Participants were asked to supply video, audio, and photo input, to journal their eating patterns, and to provide responses to early-stage product concepts.

The Product Dynamics team conducted “consumer work sessions” in which participants defined examples of the characteristics required to deliver their expectations of the final product, Lindsey explained. Using this framework, the company’s food scientists developed product prototypes to address the consumers’ wants and needs for a product that would help fuel them for their vigorous workouts and intense lifestyles.

The project allowed the researchers to home in on optimal sensory attributes—something tangy, tart, complex, and with diverse textures. Lindsey said that the process allowed the product developers to come up with a product concept—an energy snack in the form of bite-size pieces—more quickly and with greater confidence that it would be successful in the marketplace.

Choline’s Time to Shine
Relatively unfamiliar to the majority of American consumers, choline is an essential nutrient linked to brain and liver health and neural tube development. And yet, according to 2003–2004 NHANES data, 90% of the U.S. population is not consuming enough choline.

A vitamin B-like substance, choline is a precursor to the phospholipid phosphotidylcholine. Phospholipids are integral to cell membranes and cell functions, including trans-membrane signaling. It is a precursor to the neurotransmitter, acetylcholine, and is therefore critical to nervous system functioning and nerve impulse transmission.

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“Choline is an ingredient and nutrient whose time should be here now,” said Wellness 13 presenter Catherine Adams Hutt, Principal at RdR Solutions. Adams Hutt and A. Elizabeth Sloan, President of Sloan Trends Inc., both believe that the lack of choline in U.S. consumers’ diet is notable and needs addressing.

Speaking in a session titled “Healthy Muscle, Blood Sugar Levels, Circulation, and Choline,” Adams Hutt and Sloan discussed choline’s nutritional impact, both on infants and adults, and explored the mass market opportunity for the nutrient in food and beverages and supplements.

As Adam Hutt explained, the evidence for choline’s benefit for brain development is strong. In the fetal brain, choline is involved in the development of the hippocampus and basal forebrain, known to regulate memory. In addition, choline is also vital in protecting against neural tube defects during pregnancy.
Neural tube defects can result in birth defects, including anencephaly or spina bifida. Human studies have shown that women with the highest intake of choline had a 72% lower risk of neural tube defect-affected pregnancy. Importantly, these defects occur early in pregnancy—between days 21 and 27 after
conception—when many women do not realize that they are pregnant, which underscores the need for higher daily intake of choline in the U.S. population overall.

Not only is choline vital during pregnancy and for infants, but there is potential for it to support normal brain function in adults, since the human brain continues to evolve, generating new nerve cells throughout life. In addition, there is strong evidence that choline deficiency results in fatty liver (alcoholic- and non-alcohol related fatty liver) and liver damage, including cancer.

Choline needs are greater for men, for whom an adequate intake (AI) is 550 mg/day, than for women (AI 425 mg/day). Additionally, choline needs increase in pregnancy to 450 mg/day and in lactation to 550 mg/day. However, despite being named as a “Nutrient of Concern” by the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans Advisory Committee, 2007–2008 NHANES data show a mean choline intake for the population of only 302 mg/day. “Children are the only group that appears to get enough choline,” said Adams Hutt. 

And getting people to realize the need to consume more choline may be difficult. According to Sloan, only 12% of Americans were even aware of choline in 2012 and only 1% said they made a strong effort to get more of the nutrient. “Choline is really just coming on the radar screen for most people …There needs to be a fairly significant education campaign to get this segment going,” said Sloan. In fact, she explained that it’s so new that major trackers of supplement sales have not yet started tracking sales of choline supplements.

While choline supplement launches took off in the global marketplace in 2012 with 522 new launches compared to 292 in 2011, introductions in North America are actually on the decline. The trend is similar for new food and beverage introductions featuring choline. Globally, there were 1,908 new products launched in 2012 compared to 1,295 in 2011. Meanwhile, North America saw a slight uptick in choline food and beverage launches in 2012 with 754 compared to 674 in 2011. (See Figure 1.) According to Sloan, there is strong interest for choline supplementation within the infant formula market, which happens to be the world’s fastest-growing packaged food category. However, “the real opportunity here is addressing the general deficiency within the U.S. population,” said Sloan.

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Breakfast Bar Takes Top Prize at Student Competition
Cardiovascular disease is the number one cause of death in North America. The third annual Heart-Healthy Product Development Competition, sponsored by CanolaInfo, challenged food science students to address this public health issue by creating heart-healthy food products low in saturated fat and free of trans fat with the use of canola oil.

Three finalist student teams were selected from across the United States to present their product concepts at Wellness 13. The products could be for any meal of the day or a snack. During the conference, the three teams participated in a closed poster and tasting session for the judges and also delivered oral presentations to an open audience.

Combining the growing popularity of breakfast items and the need for convenient, on-the-go packaging with ingredients that meet the Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2010, food science students Quyen Nguyen and Alexandria Huck from the University of Arkansas took first place with Simply Heart. A banana and cinnamon flavored breakfast bar, Simply Heart is made from an oat and sweet potato base, heart-healthy dried fruits, and coated in crispy puffed millet.

Differentiating itself from other breakfast bars on the market, Simply Heart is larger at 72 g with only 200 calories per bar. In addition, the bar is vegan-friendly and gluten- and dairy-free. It contains two of the top-five heart-healthy ingredients—oat-meal and soy. The team used canola oil as another source of the heart-healthy fats, omega-3 and omega-6.

In addition to the ingredients, the teams had to consider product processing, product safety, HACCP plans, packaging, shelf life, marketing, and pricing. To address common issues such as water activity and lipid oxidation, Nguyen and Huck used rice bran and soy protein as humectants, minimized high moisture ingredients, optimized the baking temperature, and added green tea extract as an antioxidant that limits lipid oxidation. Additionally, they used packaging to enhance the shelf life by using a low density polypropylene bag that acts as an oxygen and moisture barrier and by replacing the oxygen in the bag with nitrogen through a process called nitrogen flushing. 

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Heart-Healthy Product Development

For winning first place, Nguyen and Huck accepted a check for $3,500, a trophy, and complimentary registration to the 2013 IFT Annual Meeting & Food Expo® in Chicago, Ill. The second place team from Rutgers University received a check for $2,500 for its Herbilicious Crisps, a crossover snack between chips and crackers, and the $1,000 third place prize went to Iowa State University with SmHeart Bites, a cottage cheese, almond, and oat bran snack bar.

“All three teams really should be commended for their hard work in preparing for the competition, and they all did a great job in presenting their products,” said judge Shaunda Durance-Tod, CanolaInfo Manager. “The Simply Heart team showed a lot of creativity and problem-solving ability in their choice of ingredients, and they answered the judges’ questions very well.”

 

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Can't get enough of Wellness 13?:

• If you were unable to attend Wellness this year you can still access all of its content through the Wellness Digital Library, sponsored by McDonald’s.
• Read more about Quyen Nguyen and Alexandria Huck from the University of Arkansas in this month's Face-to-Face interview series.

 

Kelly Hensel is Food Technology magazine’s Digital Media Editor ([email protected]). Mary Ellen Kuhn is Executive Editor of Food Technology ([email protected]). Toni Tarver is Senior Writer/Editor of Food Technology ([email protected]).