Students develop healthier condiment
The nutrition and food sciences program has changed the world of condiments. By replacing almost 80 percent of the oil in regular mayonnaise with yogurt, Yogonnaise is one-third the calorie content of oil-based mayonnaise.
The two food scientists responsible for the innovation that won the $10,000 grand prize at the Idaho Milk Processors Association contest said they aim to save the American public from death by obesity.
“Pleasure-to-guilt ratio is high with Yogonnaise, so people don’t feel guilty after eating it,” said co-developer Ranjeeta Wadhwani, a researcher with dairy background. “People want both pleasure and health in eating, but obesity is the biggest problem in western countries and is spreading in Asian countries as well. It’s our job to take this challenge of obesity and develop products that have more pleasure than guilt.”
First Lady Michelle Obama is campaigning to fight obesity in children. Thursday, Wal-Mart announced that within the next five years, it would set standards to zone in on sodium, fats and sugars, as well as lowering prices for fruits and vegetables. The company would have to do so gradually, so the general public would have time to adjust to the healthier food.
“Today people are becoming more health conscious,” said Subash Shrestha, co-developer of Yogonnaise and food scientist researcher. “But if you took the sodium content, for example, from 100g and reduced it immediately to 50g, the public would notice. But if you did it gradually, it would be less noticeable.”
With Yogonnaise, Shrestha and Wadhwani said they developed the product with a low PH, which dissuades the growth of bacteria. No added spices or flavors were included, but Wadhwani mentioned hopes of curry, dill, ranch and an array of berry flavored Yogonnaise.
“With this development, it is a base that can be modified and used for different yogurt-based products,” Shrestha said. “Even for lactose-intolerant people, there is no problem using yogurt-based food because the lactose is turned into lactic acid. It tastes just like the real thing in texture and mouth-feel.”
This development was rigorously judged on taste, texture and appearance at the IMPA’s annual convention and won the $10,000 grand prize.
Shrestha and Wadhwani said they are still developing products to improve the quality, safety and overall healthiness of foods that we commonly eat.
Wadhwani said she is currently experimenting with the standard ingredients of cheese to reduce fat and incorporate dietary fiber. Her dairy background and research has enabled her to manipulate levels of sodium, fat, and fiber and has had her work published in an academic journal highlighting her advances.
Shrestha said he is working on a solution for mass-quantity production of food, focusing on safety and quality. He calls his process the ‘Aggie Burger’, which would cook the outside surfaces of the patty partially, as is the norm. Then, the burger would be left in a marinade to finish the cooking process.
“The temperature of the marinade would ensure a uniform cooking, and would be able to be held for up to four hours,” Shrestha said. “The longer the holding time, the juicier the burger. So instead of customers getting an inferior-quality product, it would maintain safety longer, and taste better.”
Shrestha is also developing a zero-calorie, yogurt-based chocolate. He has been experiencing setbacks including cohesion of ingredients, and similar ‘mouth-feel’ associated with the addictive substance.
Both doctoral candidates said they want to improve the general health of the American public, and wanted to publicly thank those who helped them achieve a Yogonnaise success.
“We really admire these people for their support, especially Western Dairy, Don McMahon, Brian Numerson, Carl Brotherson and Dave Irish. We couldn’t have done it without them.”
– m.p.dahl@aggiemail.usu.edu