By KAREN BINDER
Illinois Correspondent

URBANA, Ill. — Nanotechnology, fair-trade issues and health benefits will be dipped in chocolate and served to six high schoolers as food science internships this summer at the University of Illinois.
These chocolate-covered lessons over 15 days will offer the students a fun, yet relevant, opportunity to learn what food science is all about through study of a single market item – chocolate – says Nicki Engeseth, a food chemistry associate professor in the UoI Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition.

“Our goal is to introduce the students to many aspects of food science through the study of chocolate,” Engeseth said. “Actually, they will be exposed to all of them, except maybe one.”
For example, the students will learn how to monitor quality changes in chocolate and use scientific principles to investigate changes in chocolate during storage, she said, a topic of research already underway in her laboratories. If that’s not sweet enough, they also will study nanotechnology applications on chocolate, including a trip to the Center for Microanalysis of Materials.

This is where university food scientists team up with their engineering department peers to analyze grain size, crystal structure and roughness parameters of chocolate, all real factors which influence taste, texture and the release of flavor compounds, Engeseth noted.

Essentially a food chemist, her research is focused on identifying biochemical changes to improve food quality, particularly in oilseeds. “Our lab is interested in lipids, and chocolate, as you know, has a high percentage of cocoa butter,” she said, adding that a company approached her to study changes in flavor during chocolate’s one- to two-year shelf life.

In the melting pot, too, are a nutritional intervention study on chocolate’s health benefits, allowing the students to see how the studies are conducted and analyzed; and a history lesson rooted in the cacao pod and leading to a fair trade discussion based on today’s global marketplace.

Of course, the food science lab is chock full of candy-making equipment to help students learn more about chocolate properties. They’ll learn conching (a texturizing step) and tempering methods, use molding machines and eventually end up in an “Iron Chef”-inspired chocolate cooking competition.

Also planned are a field trip to a local chocolatier to learn expert molding techniques and a sensory panel in which students will evaluate such qualities as flavor and graininess, record their impressions and then apply them other analytical tools. “Yes, there will be lots of chocolate to eat,” Engeseth added.

High school teachers can get a taste, too. There are plans for a one-day, hands-on teacher workshop offering activities for the classroom.

As tasty as the program sounds, all of the nuggets add up to a unique learning perspective for students to consider further studies in food science. Besides giving students a taste of a potential area of study, the university has a chance to showcase its attributes and hopefully attract the students to enroll.

This is the first year for the “chocolate internship,” which was inspired by what other campus departments have done to attract middle and high school students to study science-related fields at the UoI. Engeseth estimated the Food Science program has 45-60 students enrolled.

 Students interested in applying for the 15-day internship must submit applications by March 2 and selected students will be named by March 23. Applications are available by contacting graduate student Melissa Tisoncik via e-mail at uiuc.chocolate@gmail.com or by calling 217-244-6788 for details.

Sweetening the pot is room and board, thanks to USDA grant funding, but the interns must provide their own transportation to the university.