Eye Opening Experiential Learning through the Food Science Education Summer Scholars Program

By Luke Shawn Thomas

As part of the Food Science Summer Scholar program of 2021, one of our projects was to take a virtual tour of a food processing facility as well as make storyboards for the production process of a food product.  To complete these projects, we went to the NC State Food Innovation Lab at Kannapolis. It was situated in the research campus of Kannapolis. 

The Food Innovation Lab, we learnt, was a research, product development facility that was built to support small scale manufacturers looking at commercializing plant-based food products. It contained various areas: a Quality Control Lab, Product Development and Test Kitchen, Thermalization Room, Wet Processing Area among others. Each area had various pieces of equipment justifying the name of the respective room. This gave me the opportunity to look at an Extruder, Freeze Dryer, Homogenizer, etc. for the first time.

I also got the opportunity to take a 360-degree video of the food processing facility . I was thrilled to learn how to use a Matterport camera. It was controlled by an iPad, and one had to hide from the view of the camera’s lenses while it was scanning the room. It took a few hours to scan the entire facility. When I saw the virtual tour of the facility, it looked like anyone could get quite a good idea of what the facility looked like without even travelling there!

To complete these projects, we went to the NC State Food Innovation Lab at Kannapolis.

Luke Shawn Thomas

Summer Scholars Participant

We also had to make storyboards about the processing of a food product made at the lab, describing how the different equipment were used in the process. Mr. Joe Hildebrand, the pilot plant manager, was very helpful and answered all my questions about the various machines and what role they played in the manufacture of Tigernut based plant milk. I loved this part of the project since I was given an opportunity to learn the functioning of equipment like the Peeler Tank, Lee SS Kettles, Good Nature X-1 Juicer, and the Microthermics HVHW Pasteurizer. I was able to learn their roles in the processing of Tigernuts to give the plant-based milk like the Peeler Tank was used to increase and decrease the temperature of the tigernuts to facilitate the removal of its skin, while the Likwifier was used to churn the tigernut water mixture to a smooth paste-like solution to facilitate the formation of the milk.

This time of learning about equipment used in Food Processing facilities has opened me up to the possibility of working in a product development facility. On the other hand, I learnt about the medium of virtual tours through which interested individuals can always have a look at a Food Processing facility if one has a Matterport camera at hand. The Food Science Summer Scholar program provided me with this unique experience of not only visiting but also mapping an entire facility using the Matterport camera. I got an idea of how a Product Development Facility works and learnt that through virtual tours, we can show various interested individuals like Food Industry or Safety Workers what a food processing facility looks like without having to travel there.

Acknowledgements

The Food Science Education and Extension Summer Scholars program was supported through grant funds from the United States Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture