Since March 2016, four K-State Food Science graduate students have been working on a new product called Cheesy-Pack Cracker. The product development team members include Lu Wang, Karolina Sanchez, Gagan Gandhi, and Bingyi Li. Their goal was to create an egg-free, high protein, salty granola bar.
The Cheesy-Pack Cracker is described as a ready-to-eat cracker snack. To replace the eggs, they used natural flax seed flour as the binder. This is beneficial for those with egg allergies and it lowers the calorie content. To increase the protein, cheese powder was mixed into the dough. This improves color and adds a rich flavor. The cracker also has whole grain ingredients to increase fiber content. In the end, this savory cracker will satisfy any snack craving.
After many trials and errors, the team remained optimistic and entered the product into the American Association of Cereal Chemists International (AACCI) product development competition. Their hard work was rewarded as they were chosen to be a finalist in the competition.
The students will be attending the AACCI annual meeting to compete in the competition in Savannah, GA from October 22-26, 2016. They will compete against four other national college teams. This competition challenges the students to be innovative and promotes a connection between academics and industry. Best of luck to our K-State product development team!
The team’s advisors are Drs. Karen Schmidt and Jayendra Amamcharla.
Contributors and Editors: Karen Blakeslee, Bryanna Cook and Elsa Toburen
Pictures by Elsa Toburen