By Julia Leaman
Many BYU students have accidentally swigged bad milk, but how many taste it intentionally?
A team of food science students attended competitions in Chicago and San Francisco this semester tasting and evaluating dairy products.
They said they get asked a lot how they can do this and not gain weight or even eat those products in daily living after tasting some poor quality products.
Rachel Nelson, 21, a senior from Miami, Fla., majoring in food science and one of the competitors, describes it as “the chew and spew method” where they will not actually eat it, just taste it.
Brandon Burrows, 24, a senior from Salt Lake City, majoring in food science and chemistry, was one of the competitors.
He said he explained to some of his friends what he was doing on these trips, after which they responded, “Are you serious?”
Burrows and the rest of the team were serious, taking home a first place trophy in milk judging at the regional conference in Chicago. The Chicago conference had ten teams and 30 contestants.
At the national competition in San Francisco, they received first place in ice cream and second place in milk.
The overall team score in San Francisco for judging butter, milk, yogurt, cheese, cottage cheese, and ice cream was sixth out of 21 teams attending the conference.
On Monday morning, Oct. 9, the food science students judged for about four hours applying the techniques and knowledge they learned prior to the conference.
Professor Lynn Ogden, the team coach and graduate student, Dave Taylor, assistant team coach, trained the students to recognize dairy product defects, causes of defection and defection prevention.
With 21 teams attending the competition, BYU delegates felt the competition but were prepared.
“I thought we were pretty prepared. We had two practices a week and the regional conference helped prepare me,” said Gunilla Quarnberg, 23, a senior from Centerville, Utah, majoring in food science.
At the conference students need to be able to recognize product defects and give a score based on the intensity of the defect.
“When we can break into winning some of these awards – we’re feeling pretty good,” said Ogden.
BYU is the only team from Utah that attends the annual competitions.
“It was a lot more serious than I thought it would be. Some of the groups had been training for months, even years,” said Nelson.
The BYU team said they hope to be more prepared next year by starting practices earlier. Burrows and Quarnberg are the assistant team coaches for next year and plan to have the team selected by the middle of winter semester.
“We need to get going earlier next time,” Ogden said.
The students agree that the competition is a good, tangible experience for food science.
“It makes me excited about my major,” Quarnberg said.
Burrows added to her comment, “Everyday in class is like Christmas.”
These annual conferences are sponsored by the United States Department of Agriculture, the International Association of Food Industry Suppliers, and the American Dairy Science Association.
