Frank DiMeo/University Photography

Cornell food science students won the Institute of Food Technologists' national competition with Wrapidos.

The Cornell University food science student team won the 1998 Institute of Food Technologists' national food product competition in Atlanta Monday night (June 22) for the third time in four years. The winning entry was a cone-shaped, flour tortilla meal-wrapper called Wrapidos.

In the largest field of participants in the history of the competition, Cornell beat second-place Iowa State's S'morsels, third-place Kansas State's Chicotillas and 17 other teams.

"They did it again!" said Joe Regenstein, Cornell professor of food science and a faculty sponsor of the team. "I'm very proud of our kids."

The Cornell team won $1,000 in prize money in the competition, sponsored by M&M/Mars. "With 20,000 [food industry] people attending this meeting, this first-place win is a very dramatic and impressive success story for our students," said Mark McLellan, Cornell professor of food science and director of the Cornell Food Science Institute, which is located at Cornell's Ithaca campus and the New York State Agricultural Research Station in Geneva, N.Y.

After winning the prestigious national food competition in 1995 with Pizza Pop-Ups and in 1996 with Stir-Ins, chocolate-covered coffee stirrers, the Cornell food team took honorable mention in last year's finals with Swiss Crepes, a breakfast snack.

The students' march into Atlanta this year faced serious obstacles when a malfunctioning refrigerator in Atlanta froze the Wrapidos the night before the judging. "Wrapidos were not engineered to be frozen. That product had no design for tolerance against freezing," said Dennis Miller, Cornell professor of Food Science and associate director of the food science institute. The students managed to thaw the Wrapidos in a microwave oven.

The students then faced another obstacle: A leaky Wrapido. For the taste-testing, the students filled a Wrapido for each of the three judges. The Wrapidos' edible moisture barrier allows them to hold moist and sometimes drippy food products, such as salad dressing. Two of the three Wrapidos held up under the heavy scrutiny of the judges. But one dribbled dressing.

Each team also gave an oral presentation. Cornell students Sam Nugen, Winny Setiady and Sharon Bender had to explain the use of monoglyceride and the alpha-amylase to keep the Wrapidos fresh. The students also explained how the dough is made more pliable through the addition of cysteine, a food conditioner.

Cornell students on the team were: Meredith Agle of Eden, N.Y.; Jenna Aronson of Long Beach, N.Y.; Sharon Bender of Wilmette, Ill.; Ellen Charny of Pittsburgh; Kwan-Han Jimmy Chen of Holmdel, N.J.; Ji Hwa Choi of Lansdale, Pa.; Henry Cortez of El Paso, Texas; Matt Ehn of Clovis, Calif.; Genevieve Johnson of Troy, Mich.; Greg Kapp of Valhalla, N.Y.; Tracy Luckow of Montreal; Liz Martin of Charlton, N.Y.; Meghan McCamey of Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.; Nandini Nagarajan of Louisville, Ky.; Sam Nugen of LaGrangeville, N.Y.; Winny Setiady of Jakarta; Melanie Tudhope of Rutland, Vt.; Liang Xie of Hunan, People's Republic of China; and Laura A. Zimmer of East Berne, N.Y.