Culinology - December 2021 - 33

Waste not,
want not:
2022 Food Evolution Competition Winners
In 2016, the Food Evolution Competition began at the
RCA Annual Conference as the product development
food waste competition with university students
developing new food products using one designated,
upcycled ingredient. The 2022 Food Evolution
Competition is sponsored by Griffith Foods.
Upcycled ingredients used in past competitions have
included spent grain flour, green banana flour, coffee
cherries, NorthTaste seafood concentrates, Sugar Creek
upcycled bacon fat and Griffith Foods' hearts of palm
powder. Future ingredients may include tofu pulp, juice
pulp and chocolate fruit.
Phil Saneski, founding member of the student-initiated
competition, saw the event as an opportunity to get
students more involved and extend their shelf-life as chefs
through Culinology and has witnessed it evolve, over
the past five years, into an upcycled foods innovation
platform.
The competition
In the fall, sponsoring companies shipped the chosen
ingredient to student teams with product specifications.
Student teams do R&D on their product and then build
and submit a fully packaged proposal. The top three
teams present their products in front of five expert judges
at the RCA conference.
The competition now engages not only Culinology
students, but also MBA students at Harvard and
MIT, chemical engineering, public health and MBA
students at the University of California, Berkeley, and
" It really starts at the university level
to bring innovation to the professional
arena through the next generation of food
researchers since students have the freshest
perspective on the industry. "
Phil Saneski, founding student member of the
Food Evolution Competition.
university students in other culinary, food science and
nutrition programs. It's an event that broadens the RCA
community.
A win-win competition with impact
Winning student teams have launched Kickstarter
campaigns, spoken on RCA Conference panels and left
ready to enter pitch competitions, such as FoodBytes.
In 2018, the winning team organized a " Chopped " style
cooking event using banana flour with schools
in the Los Angeles area. Team captain Corey Abesa
went on to intern at Pulp Pantry, a company upcycling
juice pulp. That summer, Mr. Abesa led the R&D and
commercialization launch for Pulp Pantry chips, which are
now sold in every Target in the nation.
The Food Evolution Competition is about better
understanding supply chain sustainability, offering
support through student entrepreneurial development
and engaging those who are most excited about social
entrepreneurship in solving the food waste crisis.
Check out all the competitions to be held in Atlanta, including the Food Evolution Competition (sponsored
by Griffith Foods), the Student Culinology Competition (sponsored by Florida Food Products) and the
Culinology Cocktail Competition (sponsored by Flavor Dynamics) at conference.culinology.org/See/
Competitions or follow #RCA2022 on Twitter.
DECEMBER 2021 | Culinology | 33

http://conference.culinology.org/See/

Culinology - December 2021

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