Their original idea was good - a little too good. Months into preparing their entry for a product development competition, members of the UW-Madison Product Development Team discovered that the Center for Dairy Research was close to production of a fruit-flavored cheese similar to theirs. The team had to start over, halfway through the year.
We sat down and thought, 'in two days we need to come up with something else,'"" said Jen Baeten, UW-Madison graduate student and team leader. ""We came up with fruit sushi and thought it was something unique, not on the market, and something we could do.""
The team's entry, Kudamushi Fruit Sushi, earned second place at the Annual Institute of Food Technologists product development competition, held in Chicago July 28-29. Twenty teams entered the competition, with six moving on to the final competition.
The name for the dessert sushi comes from the Japanese word for fruit - kudamono. Baeten described it as resembling a maki roll - seaweed-wrapped rice with raw fish or vegetables at the center.
The fruit sushi had pectin, a hard jelly, at the center. The ginger- and peach-flavored pectin was surrounded by jasmine-flavored rice, which was wrapped in a thin layer of blueberry, plum and pear fruit leather (like a tender fruit roll-up). The team made everything by hand, using the food science test kitchen.
""It has layers of flavor that hit you as you eat it,"" Baeten said, starting with sweetness and fruity flavors, then spiciness from the ginger and finally a floral note from the jasmine.
The team, which ranged from freshmen to graduate students, had to write a five-page preliminary paper, then a 24-page paper detailing everything from nutritional content to food safety to a full business plan. Team members also had to make a giant poster summarizing their long paper. This is the fourth time UW-Madison has sent a team. The poster can be found at Babcock Hall, along with posters from previous years.
The team was unusual compared to teams from most other schools in that it was completely student organized and led, said Renée Lietha, UW-Madison graduate student and team member.
""I learned a lot about the product development process: how you can take an idea and run with it,"" said Amy Jacobs, UW-Madison senior and team member. ""For the time we had, we put everything together really well.""
Part of the process, Jacobs said, included dealing with any problems that arise.
Many of the problems with the fruit sushi came from the sushi being frozen during storage and then heated up in the microwave.
""When you thawed it in the microwave, the pectin center would melt and ooze out the bottom,"" Baeten said. ""The fruit leather would get slimy. That was a problem; no one would want to eat it because it was falling apart.""
""In class, a lot of times there is one correct solution to a problem. In product development, it's different,"" Lietha said. ""If something doesn't work, we look at it and say, 'Okay, X happened. What caused this? What do we need to change?' There may be ten different ways to get from point A to point B and none of them are necessarily wrong.""
The judges considered perceived technical difficulty and problem solving in making their decision, Lietha said. ""For example, cooked rice has a very short shelf life - [a few days]. By freezing the rolls, we were able to extend the shelf life to several months. The fruit leather picked up moisture quickly so we added an edible moisture barrier. The pectin center didn't thaw well at first so we decreased the moisture content and made it able to be thawed in the microwave.""
On top of creating a product that held together and tasted good, the fruit sushi is nutritious, Baeten said. The pectin center was fortified with inulin, a dietary fiber, and with so many peaches the sushi was a good source of vitamin C.
""Some [dessert sushi] has been made either based on fresh fruit or rice cereal treats, but only on a very limited basis,"" Lietha said. ""The concept of having a fruit-based dessert sushi that you could buy on grocery store shelves was graded fairly high on originality.""
Baeten estimates that a box of 12 fruit sushi, four servings, would retail for $3.99. While products entered in the competition have not made it to actual production, Baeten said that may change.
The team members' efforts earned them $2,500.
Along with Baeten, Lietha and Jacobs, other members of the team included Annaliese Eberle, Stephanie Pauk, Jordan Gosz, Melisa Xin, Joshua Hambali, Katherine Elia and Caroline Lynch.
