By IFTSA Competition Task Force

Attention IFTSA competition participants!  We have some exciting news to share.   IFTSA is currently investigating our competitions in order to improve them for the future.  This includes making small rule changes and clarifications, as well as larger improvements including technology incorporation and new competitions in the future.  For the upcoming 2013-2014 year we have made some small changes to our current list of competitions.  Here they are:

College Bowl:

• We have removed the maximum number of members that can be on a team (previously the cap was 6 students).  This means that teams can be comprised of an unlimited number of students.  But per usual, only 4 students will participate at a time, with a maximum of 2 graduate students.  Any students who rotate in during the national competition and win are ineligible to play in future years.

Developing Solutions for Developing Countries:

• It is now highly encouraged to incorporate some type of visual aid (video or other type of visual aid) during the oral presentation.  This can be incorporated into the final presentation.
• New Theme: Vegetable oil processing is a growing industry in Africa. The filter cake from oil processing (defatted soy meal and sunflower meal) is a low value by-product, which is typically sold at a reduced price to the animal feed industry. Develop products using these low value oil industry by-products that could be commercialized for human consumption. Consider stability, shelf life, food safety and consumer cost issues as you identify these products.

Disney – IFTSA:

• The rules have been clarified to state that teams can be comprised of all undergraduates, a mixture of undergraduate and graduate students, or all graduate students.

Undergraduate Research Competition:

• It is no longer required for the Journal of Food Science to have the first right of refusal for papers stemming from abstracts of participants.  Participants can now submit their research publication to the journal of their choice.

Heart Healthy:

• This year’s theme is for teams to create heart-healthy snack food products low in saturated fat and free of trans fat.

If you have any questions regarding these small changes/clarifications please do not hesitate to reach out to your competition chair or us directly.  Enjoy the coming semester and good luck with competition preparations!

All the best,

IFTSA Competition Task Force

iftsa.competitionupdate@gmail.com

Photo credit: http://www.visioncritical.com/blog/competitive-analysis-beyond-your-own-industry