Pennsylvania State University students took top honors in the Dairy Research Institute New Product Competition. The team created a novel dairy-based, quiche-like muffin (called Mooofins, see photo) that targets adult consumers seeking a high-protein, on-the-go breakfast item. Mooofins were designed to come in a variety of flavors, including blueberry sausage, maple bacon Cheddar and bell pepper mushroom, and are an excellent source of protein and calcium. Dairy ingredients, including cottage cheese, yogurt, milk, whey and nonfat dried milk comprised 70 percent of the total ingredients

To help bring breakfast back into the morning routine and emphasize the nutritional value and role of dairy throughout the day, the Dairy Research Institute made the morning meal occasion the focus of the second annual Dairy Research Institute New Product Competition.

The competition challenged college students to develop a dairy-based product using the latest advancements in product development. The top three student teams are being honored at the American Dairy Science Association (ADSA) meeting in Indianapolis this week.

Other winners are teams from Iowa State University and Ohio State University. The ISU team placed second for DayBreakers, an American version of gulabjamun, a fried Indian food. The French toast stick-shaped food product is made with milk protein concentrate and nonfat dried milk. The OSU team created Whey-Go, a microwaveable, easy-to-eat product containing fat-free milk, low-fat American and Swiss cheese, whey protein and unsalted butter.

Read Bill Graves' guest blog and Jim Carper's Dairy Case for more on the competition.