UCC food students on cutting edge

A zero-waste coffee substitute that uses the left-over grinds to bake cookies, buffalo salami, and a vegan paté made from quinoa are just some of the food innovations UCC’s final year students on the Food Science and Food Marketing and Entrepreneurship degree programmes cooked up for their annual Food Innovation competition.

‘Alquiny beverages’ were offering a natural caffeine-free coffee substitute with a novel twist: Instead of used grinds made from superfoods quinoa and carob being binned, they can be worked into nutritious cookie recipes available via a QR code on the packaging.

“We’ve done focus groups and sensory panels and refined our recipe over and over again,” said Naomi Helen, one of the seven team members who worked on the product.