Elizabeth Fenner is currently finishing up her studies as a food science graduate student here at the University of Missouri. For her final project, Fenner decided to experiment with the idea of encapsulation by applying it to ice cream. For those who aren’t as science-minded, this means that Fenner is experimenting with flavor-changing ice cream! She talked to Her Campus Mizzou about how she became interested in this project and what exactly it involves. The bright student is sure to have a big future ahead!
Her Campus Mizzou: Why did you decide to major in food science at the University of Missouri?
Elizabeth Fenner: My family has been involved in the food industry for four generations. My dad, although not directly involved in food science, would take me to work with him during the summers when I was in middle school and high school. The food scientists would let me work with them and observe them in the lab. I have always been interested in science, but my experiences with my dad showed me that food science is unique. It allows for creativity and expression, as well as scientific exploration.
HCM:How did you come up with the idea for your final project?
EF: I became interested in the process of spherification [the culinary process of shaping a liquid into spheres] when a friend did a presentation on production of “fruit caviar” during a chemistry class. I worked at Buck’s Ice Cream Place for a couple of years during my graduate studies and wanted to have my thesis project apply to my experience with ice cream. Through my research on spherification, I was led to the process of encapsulation [the confinement of a molecule within a larger molecule]. I decided to apply this to ice cream.
HCM: Did you know all along you wanted to do something with ice cream?
EF: I worked at Buck’s Ice Cream Place on campus during my graduate studies. During this time I was allowed to dabble in new product development. Ice cream is easy to work with and modify. Also it was an area in which I had the most experience.
HCM: When you first started out, were you concerned about problems you might encounter? How did you deal with those problems?
EF: I had to create a new method of encapsulation that would work with the parameters of ice cream. For example, ice cream is not a chewable food, so pressure release from capsules was out of the question. Instead I looked to a wall material, which would quickly release in the mouth with a small temperature change. I also struggled with determining an encapsulation method that would not damage the wall materials and sensitive volatiles during encapsulation. We had to create our own flavoring due to the limitations of other available flavorings.
HCM: What does the ice cream taste like and how it is able to change flavors?
EF: The ice cream itself is a basic vanilla flavor. The capsules are designed to release a cherry flavor after they’re exposed to temperatures in the mouth that are not originally in the ice cream mix during production. The flavor was encapsulated by first absorbing onto a powder and then enrobing that powder with a wall material capable of melting under certain temperature constrains. People who ingest the ice cream first experience a seemingly normal vanilla ice cream, but shortly after there is a subtle burst that shifts the flavor to cherry.
HCM: If your experimental ice cream becomes a success, do you think you will try to sell it to small shops or even big distributers?
EF: If it gets patented, it will belong mainly to MU. However, it is still in its primary stages of development. Currently, I am only capable of producing very small amounts of ice cream at a time. It would require a modified method before it could be produced on a large scale.
HCM: Who will judge if your ice cream passes the test?
EF: I have performed basic sensory analysis on my ice cream, including a small-scale acceptance test. This test determined the level of like based on 100 participants’ scores. It used a 9-point hedonic scale on which a 1 is “extremely dislike” and a 9 is “extremely like.” People scored the ice cream with mostly 7s and 8s. There were a couple of low scores, but those people stated that they did not like cherry flavoring.
HCM: What have you learned from working on this project that you think other students can learn from?
EF: I learned a lot about the research process, which was a very long one for me! It can be very tiring when you have to try multiple methods for your research but don’t give up. Eventually you will find something that will work.
Photo credit: MU News Bureau