Abigail Sparks participates in Dairy Products Evaluation contests

2015 Oct 12

Abigail Sparks, a Senior studying Food Science & Human Nutrition at Iowa State University, participated as a 2015 member of the Dairy Products Evaluation Team at two contests within one week. The team participants included undergraduate students and graduate students.

Team members participated in events where they were judged on identification of defects in milk, butter, ice cream, cheddar cheese, yogurt, and cottage cheese. Participants are judged and scored on their ability to identify flavors, such as bitter or metallic, as well as texture and appearance of the products as individuals and as a team.

The first event was the Regional Collegiate Dairy Products Evaluation Contest, held September 12th, in Glenview, Illinois. Sparks placed first in butter judging at the regional contest.

Twelve schools from the United States and Canada participated in the 94th Collegiate Dairy Products Evaluation Contest. Sparks, originally from Iowa City Iowa, received the Joe Larson Merit award for exemplary leadership in this national contest. Similar to the regional contest, the national contest encourages both undergraduate and graduate students to apply their skills and knowledge while networking with others at the event.

Hands-on contests, such as dairy product judging, allows students to apply the knowledge they learned in class and through experiences. Students, such as Sparks, gain an appreciation for the variety of sensory attributes that characterize dairy foods and becomes skilled in identifying specific defects in products and learns to relate them to causative factors. Dairy product contest participants sharpen their decision making skills and gain valuable insight to who and what constitutes the dairy and food industry.