Mississippi State’s dairy products evaluation team ranked as national champions at this year’s International Collegiate Dairy Products Evaluation Contest in Lakeland, Fla.
Charles White and Julie Wilson of the food science department coached a team of six students in evaluating six categories of dairy products: milk, yogurt, cottage cheese, butter, cheese and ice cream.
The team prepared for the event for three months, starting from the first week of school. It practiced every weekday by sampling products from 6:30 a.m. until 8 a.m.
It sounds easy waking up to taste different kinds of ice cream; but for the dairy industry, a great product needs more than just flavor.
For example, White said yogurt is graded for its taste, body consistency, texture and appearance.
The day before teams evaluate samples, official industry judges grade each product type (eight samples per category).
The next day, each contestant has 35 minutes to sample and grade the product, a total of almost five hours.
“The students whose scores most closely match those of the official judges are declared product winners and overall winners,” White said.
The team, Neil Bogart, Mary Edith King, Justin Larsen, Eric Steer, Jovy Duran and Estela Casapia stole the spotlight with continuous high rankings and awards. Larsen said he was pleasantly surprised by placing second in the cottage cheese category.
“Normally, I do best in milk,” he said. True to his intuition, Larsen placed first in the milk category as well.
Eric Steer was the first in MSU history to be awarded the Joe Larson Merit Award for displaying outstanding professionalism, courtesy and potential leadership.
Steer credited his success to White and Wilson’s dedication to the team.
“Dr. White made dozens of calls procuring samples from Oregon, California, Vermont and Wisconsin, just to name a few,” Steer said.
White was named Coach of the Year. Bogart placed high individually, and Larsen placed second high individual in the all-products category, a rare accomplishment for any school.
Larsen and Bogart, the top two students of the national contest, have been invited to the annual Quality Check Dairy meeting in spring of 2005.
“Now we have the chance to participate with official judges tasting products entered by companies,” said Bogart.