'Grand prize and participation prize' at the Farming Start-up Idea / Best Club Contest
Good reviews for 'Eco-friendly, high nutrition edible insect popularization'
'Farming start-up item' created through research clubs related to majors
[January 18, 2017]
<YU Department of Food & Nutrition Research Club 'Ajabyo' that won the grand prize and participation prize at the 'Farming Start-up Idea / Best Club Contest'>
This contest, which was hosted by the Rural Hope Foundation under the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, is for start-up ideas for commercialization in various sectors including production, distribution/process, services, and 6th industries based on ideas and technologies in the food and agriculture sector. Students from 21 high schools and universities around the nation participated to show off their novel ideas.
After preliminaries, 20 teams went to the finals to compete in presentations. In result, students of 'Ajabyo', a research club of the YU Department of Food & Nutrition, won the grand prize with the farming start-up idea titled 'Functional Foods Using Edible Insects' and the participation prize with the idea titled 'Cosmetics Using Grape Skin'.
Department of Food & Nutrition juniors Han Jin-soo (24), Jung Hye-yoon (22), Park Yoon-ah (22) and Lee Jung-min (22) won the grand prize. They proposed functional foods that can actually satisfy consumer needs using edible insects that have been receiving interest as future food sources and attracted interest among participants.
Team leader Han Jin-soo, who led the team for about five months to prepare for the contest, said, "We wanted to utilize what we learned in our major and publicize edible insects such as crickets and yellow worms." He added, "I think we received good evaluations from our idea that it would be possible to reach out to general consumers more easily using this environment-friendly, highly nutritious food using it powder-type food additives instead of the whole insect."
YU Department of Food & Nutrition Professor Han Gi-dong, who is the advisor for 'Ajabyo', said, "This is the result of the hard work of students who traveled all around the nation looking for edible insects while taking part in the activities of the research club," and added, "Two of our teams were awarded in this contest by having undergraduate students engage in various types of research and coming up with ideas by participating in various contests."
The YU Department of Food & Nutrition club 'Ajabyo' is a new undergraduate research club that was established in 2015 to enhance the food engineering capacities of students through research and field trips regarding their major.
