2016 Internship: Food Innovation Center

This week was one of the busiest weeks I have had at the FIC with my time being split between our largest crop-up being held at the FIC and my major project for the summer, the Watermelon Project. For the watermelon project I took measurements and weighed the watermelons as well as cut them and weighed the skin, flesh and juice to determine yield. Then we prepared 150 samples of watermelon using five treatments and 30 watermelons that were sent to the lab for a microbial shelf-life testing to see if different forms of sanitation helped the microbial content during a seven day period. The Portland crop-up was about double the size of the other crop-ups we had done which made serving quite a challenge. It did not allow for as much server guest interaction since there was a lot more running around to do. But it was still a very fun event with a lot of really cool vendors selling delicious products.

This was another busy week, yet I never went into the FIC. On Monday and Tuesday I went to visit Sunshine Dairy so I got to see the dairy processing in action and test samples. I also got to participate in a Milk Off where you taste different store brands and rate them based on potential defects or quality errors. I also got to do a line check of product to test the seals on the package, the color and the taste to make sure the product is up to par before a whole run of product is made. I also did some milk plating to test for bacteria and ecoli which was very interesting to watch and conduct. It was a very fun and educational experience to see all the steps of dairy processing since that is the direction I think I want to go into in the future. The other days this week were spend traveling, preparing, and conducting the Hermiston Crop-Up event. This event went the smoothest and seemed to go by in the blink of an eye since we kind of had our routine figured out by this one. Thus far it is my second favorite crop-up event after the Astoria one.

My time was split this week with two main focuses. The first being another sensory test which lasted two days and the second being the Recipe Book. While this was not the first week of me working on the recipe book it was the first week that I spent a substantial amount of time on it. This was a project that I had heard was going to be done along side the Crop-Up events yet no one way taking charge and starting the project, so I decided to take this as my own project to do. The reason I did this was because it was something that was of interest to me as well as I knew it would be easier to accomplish if it was started while the crop-ups were still going on so that the right pictures would be taken and the best information be added. I am really excited to see where the recipe book goes and while my name will not be on it it is cool to think that something I have made could be published.

The main focus of this week was on the second crop-up in Astoria. This was the first one where most of the preparation would be done on site instead of at the FIC. I really enjoyed this crop-up as it was beautiful being on the coast and the town almost felt like the small town version of San Francisco with big hills, on the water yet no sand, and a trolley system. This was the first crop-up that we introduced the compost bread as a dessert. It was called compost bread because it used the discarded parts of vegetables like the stems and skins. This incorporated a class that I took at the FIC in May about pommace which is trying to incorporate the normally discarded materials of fruit and vegetables to be used in food products instead of thrown away. We also incorporated smoked fish into this dinner since we were at the Seafood Research Extension which was a delicious addition. Though the crop-ups are time consuming and tiring they are a really fun aspect of my internship because you get to know people outside of the work setting which makes your work relationship better I believe.

This was oatmeal week at the FIC. We made 500 individual cups of oatmeal for an oatmeal sensory test. There were five different flavors we were making which took a whole day of weighing and measuring of ingredients with a large team to accomplish the task. The following day was the sensory test which was difficult in the sense that each oatmeal had to sit in hot water for a specific amount of time. We were trying to get the timing right where the consumers did not have to wait in between oatmeal’s and the oatmeal did not sit longer than the intended time, which would affect thickness and temperature. It took a few tries to get the timing down right but once it was the day went smoothly. While I usually am someone who does not like oatmeal I really liked a few of the oatmeal’s we were testing and I discovered that the key to good tasting oatmeal is salt.

This was Crop Up number one week. It was an exhaustively busy yet very rewarding week. At the beginning of the week I helped with washing the vegetables that were going to be used for the Crop Up meals. With how many people were being fed there was a lot to wash. I also volunteered to do a major clean out of the communal refrigerator in the lunch room. The fridge was causing a lot of complaints by employees, so to help make the work place more pleasant for everyone I took time after work hours to clean the shelves and throw away food that had gone bad or was almost empty just taking up space. There was also a two day sensory test this week on salad dressing, which is one of our most involved tests because all of the lettuce has to be washed, cut, and measured. The first Crop Up was on the 21st and it was exciting to see everyone’s hard work from the past months come together. It was a long day that didn’t go off without any hiccups. While it was a beautiful sunny day it was extremely windy which did not bod well for setting up the place settings in advance. Half way through the day it was decided that rocks were a necessary decoration to the table settings to help keep everything from blowing away. There were also a few last minute changes to the menu and such, but all guests were very understanding to the mess-ups and had a good sense of humor about them. During the day I helped in any area that needed assistance so I helped set up tables, decorate, stuff goodie bags, cut herbs, fill in at the check in desk, dress the plates, and serve entrees to guests. All in all it was a very fun day and I am excited to be involved with the next one in two weeks.

At the FIC this week a lot of work was done working to finish logistics for the first Crop Up. I worked on making fact cards about specialty crops and cutting up the tickets that people will get at the Crop Up to use at the Market Showcase. There was also another burger consumer test this week which was pretty routine since we have done quite a few since I have been here. I also made more phone calls for the co packer list as well as a few calls for the Crop Up. I  helped in the kitchen with some drink formulation by measuring and combining ingredients. It was a busy week filled with a lot of small tasks.

During this week at the FIC I spent a majority of my time filing. This involved a lot of sorting through papers and scanning documents onto the computer. The idea was to minimize the amount of papers. But this is a rather large project to complete and during the week I was only able to get through half of the letter B in the filing cabinets. This will be a projects that will take a long time to complete.

I think this was my first slow week at the FIC. Almost everyone on the OSU side was gone this week so I filled in at the front desk while the receptionist was on vacation. I found it interesting as to the type of phone calls the front desk receives. A lot of the calls are just people trying to figure out what the FIC does and whether or not we can help them with the food questions they have. The FIC is kind of like the fence between consumers and producers and we help people to decide if and how they can get from the consumer side to the producer side. After having so many busy weeks it was nice to have a week to just work on some of the little things needing to get done.

Another busy week at the FIC which included three days of consumer testing and the Time to Market Event. Two of the sensory days was dedicated to salad dressing which was one of the more difficult tests to run because each consumer was testing 12 samples of salad. The hard part is that this was not a test where things could really be prepared a head of time so a lot of time was used just washing and cutting the lettuce so it was ready for testing. But also the consumers were receiving six samples individually and then six samples all together creating a lot of work for the people serving the salads as well as a lot of dishes needing to be cleaned. The third day of testing was another burger test but it was also on the same day as the Time to Market Event so while the test was routine it was a very busy day with the event happening. The Time to Market Event was an event put on for entrepreneurs who were still trying to get into stores. the event allowed them to meet with buyers as well as to advertise their product to consumers. There were some really great products at the event that I would buy once in stores. But I think that the best part was talking to the entrepreneurs and listening to the story of how the product got started as well as their vision of where they hope it will go in the future. It was also exciting to see them talking among each other about collaborations between products. While there was pouring rain during the event it was still very much a success and it was nice to see how many consumers came even with the rain.