Start Screaming for Ice Cream: Food Science Students Finalizing Their Flavors for 10th Annual Competition

A sample cup of an ice cream flavor that will be competing in the 2024 ice cream contest.

Four teams of food science students, still busy in the lab putting the finishing touches on their flavorful frozen creations, will compete May 7 in the 10^th annual Food Science-Herrell's Ice Cream & Bakery Ice Cream Product Development Competition. The event is free and open to students, staff, the media and public.<_o3a_p>

The first 100 people to arrive at the contest, slated for 3-5 p.m. in room 125 of Furcolo Hall, will be invited to taste the ice cream flavors and vote for the People's Choice Award, says Charmaine Koo, this year's instructor of the food processing lab.<_o3a_p>

Attendees are encouraged to RSVP via the Google Form found here.<_o3a_p>

For the fifth consecutive year, the food science department is partnering with Judy Herrell, president and CEO of Herrell's Ice Cream & Bakery, who mentored the class throughout the semester. She and two of Herrell's management staff members will judge the entries based on texture, overrun, sustainability, smell and taste.<_o3a_p>

The capstone project provides senior food science majors with the perfect platform for integrating food science principles - from microbiology, chemistry and processing to shelf stability, marketing analysis and nutrition - as they prepare to enter the field.<_o3a_p>

"This year's teams have come up with unique and exciting ice cream ideas. Some I don't think have ever been tried before," Herrell says.<_o3a_p>

Throughout the year after the contest, Herrell produces the students' ice cream flavors on a rotating basis at her popular ice cream shop in downtown Northampton.<_o3a_p>

Last year's winner was Tea House Blossom - an oolong tea and peach-flavored ice cream with rosemary extract, which edged out second-place Maize Craze - featuring vegan corn bread chunks and a hot honey swirl with a jalapeño, poblano and habanero pepper flavor.<_o3a_p>

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