K-State’s own food science product development team consisting of K-State food science undergraduate students Mayla Kritski Baez and Conrad Kabus and graduate student Karthik Sajith Babu recently won 2nd place in the 2017 National Dairy Council New Product Competition! The team advisor is Dr. Jayendra Amamcharla.
The team was originally selected as one of the “Top 3” outstanding student teams, allowing them to move on to the final round. Their 2nd place finish was announced on Tuesday, June 27th at the American Dairy Science Association Joint Annual Meeting in Pittsburgh, PA.
The challenge? Develop a dairy beverage that will be the drink of choice for 15-25 year old consumers. The team responded by creating Mate Au Lait Protein Plus. The drink is described as “a unique, ready-to-drink, dairy-based tea beverage made with only four simple ingredients: whole milk, brewed Yerba mate tea, sugar and milk protein concentrate. Caramelized cane sugar provides sweetness and enhances the color and texture of this one-of-a-kind beverage that one can drink either hot or cold. Mate Au Lait Protein Plus is an excellent source of dairy protein, a good source of calcium with a caffeine content that varies between green tea and coffee. The convenient re-sealable cap makes it easy to drink some now and save some for later.”
The overall product development was no easy task, but the end result was well worth the hard work. “The Mate Au Lait Team for Kansas State University had many challenges when developing the milk-based product,” said Conrad. “But from those challenges we learned the valuable lesson of patience. Our product’s formulation and application was a tedious endeavor, but rather than rush some of the aspects of production, the team took their time and tried to perfect every detail and stay true to the original concept of Mate Au Lait.”