Student Showcase: Food and Bio-related: Charlotte Taylor of St Cuthbert's College

Kate Findlay
St Kentigern College, Auckland
Year 13 Food Technology
Teacher: Carolyn Norquay

Saint Kentigern College student Kate Findlay developed a range of recipes for the care of paediatric patients requiring a high energy/protein diet as her Year 13 Technology project, working with medical nutrition company Nutricia Ltd to create simple, tasty and affordable recipes to aid the delivery of dietary supplements to children.

Nutricia is a multi-national medical food company which specialises in the development of products and provision of specialised services to support clinical treatment regime, improving patient recovery, outcomes, and independence.

Kate's initial inspiration for the project came from her father, an oncologist who works with young cancer patients. Kate had noted that many of the children used dietary supplements to aid recovery and often looked for variety to aid compliance.

Kate contacted dietician Clare Wall at Auckland University who put her in touch with Penny Bailey, a Product Manager at Nutricia. After several interviews with Penny, Kate eventually decided on her brief: to develop a range of recipes for one of Nutricia's products 'NutriniDrink'.

"Kate's challenge was to use 'NutriniDrink drink' in a variety of recipes that would be attractive to a wide range of children. This was technologically challenging because she was working with a sweet liquid milk based product," Clare Wall explains.

With Clare's help, Kate sent out a survey to a number of paediatric dieticians working with young cancer patients to identify the key issues, both clinical and social, surrounding this particular challenge. The details that came back, along with her own brainstorming ideas, informed the creation of key factors based around the needs of several stakeholders, with each offering a different set of challenges.

For the first group - paediatric patients from 1 to 12 years old - making the recipes both delicious and palatable in taste, colour and texture was paramount.

"My survey responses showed that preferences depended on the child so I needed to develop a variety of recipes using different flavours and textures including; sweet, savoury, bland, soft, liquid, cold and hot. I thought that producing a variety of recipes would increase the likelihood that the children would consume them and therefore improve their nutritional status because there would be at least one that would appeal to them," Kate says.

For parents and for the client it was crucial that the ingredients could not only carry the supplement but also enhance its nutritional value while remaining economical and easy to obtain. The recipes themselves should also be relatively simple with short preparation times.

Realising that this would be an extensive process, Kate placed time management as her number one concern when prioritising her objectives during planning. Kate then organised time and the necessary resources with her school tech room to start experimenting with her recipe ideas. Kate began trialling recipes, attempting to use all the different NutriniDrink varieties from chocolate, strawberry, and vanilla in a variety of different dishes from savoury to sweet.

To ensure that all the recipes would be easy to make for average New Zealand families, Kate used common household equipment that would be available in any kitchen, made sure that all ingredients were readily available, and kept expenses to a maximum of three dollars per serving. In trialling, Kate used a systematic process, slightly varying one ingredient at a time until she found the right balance of taste and texture. Kate says this process was not particularly complex as she had kept her recipes as simple as possible to remain easy to prepare.

For ethical reasons Kate couldn't test her recipes on actual patients but set up a series of sensory trials with her peers and a visiting food technologist as the best alternative to get impartial feedback on her recipes.

"My main aim with these trials was to get the taste just right because otherwise the kids won't eat it, especially seeing as they are feeling sick enough as it is," Kate says.

Once Kate had created nine recipes she felt covered a number of meal options and had received favourable responses during sensory trials, she sent these through to Penny for feedback. Kate clarified this process by creating a table with columns based on each of her key factors. Penny then rated each recipe from one to four based on how well they met each individual factor.

Kate explains that, unlike her sensory trials, her primary goal with Penny was to make sure the recipe format was correct, easy to follow, and that the ingredients met the nutritional requirements.

Kate is happy to report that of the nine recipes she created from her initial trials and tests, five have been approved by Penny. Kate feels that the recipe that was most successful was her 'Frooty Tooty' ice blocks for a number of reasons.

"The ice blocks are very slow melting which is ideal for administering nutritional supplements and they taste great. They also have a really good bright purple colour which makes them fun for kids," says Kate.

Kate's survey research had shown that comfort foods were some of the most desirable meals for young patients dealing with an unfamiliar and stressful situation. Kate addressed this by creating variations on classics like macaroni and cheese, mashed potato/kumara, chocolate milkshake, porridge, and an innovative chocolate cake recipe that can be made in a standard mug.

"The 'Chocolate Mug Cake' is like a mini cake for one person. This recipe got great feedback as it is different and exciting for kids but still familiar. It is also convenient and quick for parents and guardians as it can be made and prepared in a total of five minutes," Kate says.

Kate is happy to report that the recipes have been developed into a recipe card for Nutricia and may be used soon in their promotion for NutriniDrink. Kate's teacher Carolyn Norquay was impressed by the level of initiative Kate showed throughout the project.

"Kate developed a range of successful outcomes that required her to integrate and apply her knowledge from across a range of learning areas including mathematics, chemistry, and the arts. She also gained a wide range of knowledge about altering ingredients and processing methods to be able to develop a successful outcome that is useful for clinical dieticians and the wider community."

Kate plans to go on to tertiary study in 2011.

If you have any queries relating to this project or if you would like to contact Nutricia directly please call freephone 0800 688 742 #2.