Irapuato. With two projects focused on the use of watermelon peel, students from the Department of Life Sciences at the University of Guanajuato, from the Food Engineering Program, MSc in Biological Sciences and PhD in Biological Sciences, participated in the international event “IFT Think Tank Competition”.
This competition is organized by the Department of Non-Thermal Technologies at the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT), based in the United States, which brings together experts in food science, technology and engineering from around the world.
Oscar Telles Jeron Solís, Lucia Antonita García Mendoza, Veronica García Vázquez and José Fernando Muñoz Roa, collaborated with a student from India, and produced flavored milk by extracting compounds with high hydrostatic pressure.
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Students check that their preparation makes them compete on a global level.
His project “Bioactive Compounds Encapsulated from Watermelon Peel” proposes their use in an energy drink, stimulating and value-added.
Gerardo Fernández Villanueva and Diana Carvajal Padilla, MSc in Biological Sciences, and Monica Andrea Celeste Centino Rodriguez, PhD student in Biological Sciences, together with two Tec de Monterrey students, presented a fermented beverage project using watermelon leftovers.
In this project, it is proposed to apply electric pulses to soften and pasteurize watermelon peel. It was a challenge since you can’t pasteurize soft drinks, so they first chose to pasteurize alcoholic drinks and then carbonate them to create a bubbling effect.
Participate in the international event “IFT Think Tank Competition”
Monica Centeno commented that this was a challenging experience, as they competed with peers from the United States, India, Singapore and Australia.
“We learned many things and saw areas of opportunity, but we made sure we had good preparation and basic knowledge,” he said.
For a week, jury members assigned them to use only the white part of the watermelon rind, so the participating teams presented ideas for preparing functional drinks, gum, and pasta, among other foods. At the end, the judges gave interviews in English, where each team defended its projects.
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