Best foodies in the state

/

The FFA Food Science team got first in state on Nov. 18, qualifying to compete in the National FFA Food Science and Technology Career Development Event in October 2024 in Indianapolis. Only state champions qualify for the national competition. Pictured from left to right are Anna Kliewer, Gemma Arceo-Bigoni, McKinley Ruda, Julitza Serrato-Cobian, Melanie Martinez, Zuliana Cobian-Cazarez, and Lost River FFA Advisor Meghan Miller.

Lost River’s FFA Food Science team aces state contest, besting 23 schools, more than 100 competitors

LOST RIVER – To compete at FFA Nationals, you have to be the very best. Only the state champions qualify.

An FFA team from Lost River Junior/Senior High School did just that Nov. 18, taking first in state at FFA’s State Food Science competition at Oregon State University and becoming the school’s first-ever national qualifying FFA team.

“Our team dominated,” said Lost River FFA Advisor Meghan Miller. “This is a huge honor for them. It is a tough contest and these girls worked their tails off for the last three months, some of them for the last three years.”

Team members are Melanie Martinez, Julitza Serrato-Cobian, Anna Kliewer, and McKinley Ruda and alternates Gemma Arceo-Bigoni and Zuliana Cobian-Cazarez. Julitza, Melanie, Gemma, and Zuliana, all juniors, started the school’s first Food Science team three year ago as freshmen with the goal to win state. That first year, they placed 16th; and last year they earned a fourth-place at state. This year, they were joined by sophomores Anna and McKinley.

In their competition this year, the team competed against 23 other schools. Unlike sports competitions, which have divisions based on school size, any school that has an FFA chapter competes in the same event.

What must a food science team do? The state contest consisted of three parts:

An objective test

  • This 40-question test on the basic principles of food science and safety is taken by each competitor individually and scores are combined into a team score. The team of Melanie, Julitza, Anna, and McKinley recorded three perfect scores and one score that missed one question.

Three practicums

  • Customer complaint letters: The team has two scenarios and must identify the problem in each and responds.

  • Food Safety and Sanitation: The team has to identify possible problems or hazards seen in 10 photos.

  • Sensory Evaluation

    • Aromas: Identify 10 different aromas out of a possible 30 options.

    • Triangle Test: Identify samples out of three different sets of food and drink samples through aroma, visual, or textual differences.

    • Difference Test: Identify three sets of different food samples through aroma, visual or textual difference.

Team activity

  • Teams have 30 minutes to prepare how they would respond to a scenario and develop a new product. This includes developing mock ups of packaging and marketing for the product, and calculating nutrition facts and serving sizes. The team then has 10 minutes to present before a panel of judges. The presentation is followed by a question-and-answer session.

At the district competition the week before state, the team placed second to Rogue River, who won state last year. “They were all a little frustrated, but I believe it gave them that much more fire to study and work harder,” Miller said.

The team will now prepare to compete in the National FFA Food Science and Technology Career Development Event in October 2024 in Indianapolis.

The national contest has a math component as well as a general testing component that doesn’t use a bank of questions – the test can be about any food science topic.

Like they did for the state competition, the team plans to practice and study at least once a month through the school year and then gear up in the fall to prepare for nationals.

“Our crazy, crazy goal is to place in the top 10 at nationals,” said Julitza Serrato-Cobian. “There are a lot of schools competing.”