U of S students take pulse-food product to national competition
By Kira Paluck University of Saskatchewan students Caitlin Olauson, Erin Berscheid and Kaipeng Yu, know as 'Rec Boy Inc.', won first place for their Benny Bar - a healthy pulse base granola bar alternative. The group launched their product through Mission: Impulseible, a student food product development competition sponsored by Pulse Canada. In July, the winning team will be travelling to Vancouver to attend the Canadian Special Crops Association meeting to compete against other provinces in Pulse Canada's national competition.
By University Communications
Rec Boy Inc in the Agriculture Building
Photo by Kira Paluck
"Our product is called the Benny Bar which is the Beneficial Pulse Bar. We used lentils as the base of our product and chickpea butter was added to give a nutty flavour, which makes the Benny Bar a great peanut alternative snack kids can take to school," said Olauson.
She said their Benny Bar utilizes the great taste of a granola bar and contains two types of pulses, which provide protein, fibre, and iron.
As part of a food product development undergraduate class aimed at experiential learning, students worked in teams to develop new food products starting from the idea/concept stage through to market analysis and product launch. This year the class was directed to develop a healthy food product containing a pulse ingredient that is attractive to elementary age kids (age 5-12).
"This project gave us practical, hands-on experience with all stages of food production, from developing the food to marketing our product," she added.