Coffee lovers should perk up to this: Cornell University students will defend their national food product development title at the Institute of Food Technologists' (IFT) annual competition, June 23 in New Orleans.

Armed with borrowed chef equipment, pastry bags and a plastic ruler, the team prepared a product called "Stir-Ins," a pencil-shaped cookie wrapped in chocolate and touched with flavorant to make hot, freshly brewed coffee more ambient and aromatic. Flavors will be available in Hazelnut, Irish Creme, or French Vanilla.

The Cornell team is one of six finalists in the prestigious IFT Student Association 1996 Product Development Competition.

"This competition shows that the students have mastered all the components of the food science process," said Joe Regenstein, Cornell professor of food science and team adviser. "This has become one of the most competitive events at IFT and it is really a place where students can showcase their talent. With some 18,000 people at the IFT convention, it's an unbelievable amount of good exposure."

Last year, Cornell unseated the four-year reigning champion, the University of Minnesota, with the high-tech, tasty and toaster-ready Pizza Pop-ups. The IFT Student Association names six universities each year to compete in the finals of the Product Development Competition sponsored by Mars Inc. This year, Cornell's Stir-Ins will be competing with the Bagelrito (University of California at Davis), Biscuit Bakes (Kansas State University); Skoochos (Iowa State University), Jungle Pals (Michigan State University) and Fruit Puffs (University of Minnesota).

Team members are from both Cornell's Ithaca, N.Y., campus and Cornell's Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva, N.Y.

EDITORS: Interviews with any of the team members or their faculty adviser are available by contacting Blaine Friedlander, Cornell News Service, at the Holiday Inn Superdome, (504) 581-1600, June 21-24. After June 24, contact him at (607) 255-3290.

Cornell team members and their hometowns are: Susan P. Connell, graduate student, Thousand Oaks, Calif.; Ellen Chamberlain, graduate student, Des Plaines, Ill.; Sheila Sidhu, graduate student in Cornell's Johnson Graduate School of Management, Scotch Plains, N.J.; Kathryn Deibler, graduate student, Ft. Walton Beach, Fla.; Alison Edwards, graduate student, Sea Girt, N.J.; Kathleen Kostival, graduate student, Reading, Pa.; Sarah Douglas, graduate student, Apple Creek, Ohio; Dawn-Marie Norton, graduate student, Camarillo, Calif.; Rachel Adleman, senior from Ithaca, N.Y.; Jane Friedrich, graduate student, St. Cloud, Minn.; Matthew Sade, graduate student in Cornell's Johnson School, Mendham, N.J.; and Mariano Tosso, graduate student and Fulbright Scholar from Buenos Aires, Argentina.

The competition at the IFT meeting consists of an oral presentation in front of both the judges (who will ask questions) and an audience, a poster display, a product sampling (for the judges only) and a detailed written report. The IFT has brought the student competition to the forefront of the convention, making it a prominent and popular feature. The teams will give their oral presentations and visual descriptions on Sunday, June 23, 1996. Winners are announced on the evening of June 24.

In February, the team submitted a five-page report that was devoid of any reference to Cornell to the IFT Student Association. That report included the product concept, market potential, the product formulation, a description of the product packaging, an explanation of the production process and a report of safety and quality assurance.

"The students have shown that they can apply their understanding of food science to produce solutions to real-world problems -- problems that are quite complex," Regenstein said.