Fresh Chocolate Soy Milk
Ronald Chau
St Kentigern College
Year 13 Food Technology, 20 week project
Teacher: Carolyn Norquay
While researching a Food Technology project, Ronald found that New Zealand children aged 11-14 years are prone to calcium deficiency. Since he was investigating the chemical structure of calcium in Level 3 Chemistry, he was keen to use his knowledge to work on a product that used it. After doing a market survey and finding there were no fresh soy milks available, he decided to develop a calcium-rich soy milk that would appeal to teenagers.
Ronald asked Jane Wilson, a food technologist at Fonterra, to be his client. She emphasised the importance of masking the soy taste by flavouring it, and with her help he conducted a product acceptability test with existing flavoured UHT milks. He found the preferred flavour was chocolate, and Jane confirmed that chocolate flavoured products were always in demand.
He next approached supplier Hawkins Watts for ingredients and advice. Ronald worked with stabilisers to help suspend the cocoa powder and calcium sulphate used in his product.
Ronald had to produce his own soy milk for the project, which included pasteurising it to conform to government health regulations for milk products. He conducted a number of trials on the milk, because of problems with its texture. He also performed trials with the chocolate soy milk to achieve an acceptable quality. Each sample was tested for texture, colour, aroma, flavour, and stabiliser effectiveness.
Teacher comment
Having a commercial client forced Ronald to consider his practice in more detail. It was good to see him make links with another domain knowledge area by considering his chemistry work on the bioavailability of calcium in his project.
Ronald's interaction with Hawkins Watts forced him to be very clear about what he wanted to achieve in his product. He was also required to use the Food Code to find out the ingredients he was allowed to put in his product.
An opportunity to tour the Fonterra factory gave him a real feel about what it might be like to work as a technologist. It was great to see Ronald's confidence increase and to see him work with ingredients and equipment that he was not familiar with.
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