If industry takes notice, Pizza Pop-Ups could be appearing at your local neighborhood toaster in the next six months. The team took first place at the 1995 Fourth Annual Product Development Competition held at the Institute of Food Technologists Annual Meeting in Anaheim, Ca., in early June. The prototypes that were developed by the team consist of two dough discs filled with cheese, tomato sauce, and pepperoni. They require a minute and a half to cook at a medium setting on your average Proctor Silex.
Fluted edges keep the discs fused together and the sauce and cheese from leaking into the toaster.
Other members were John Brent, Joanne Langdon, Aimee Eopocino, Susan Connel, Aaron Edwards, Lanette Schaffer, and Mary Beth Gangloff. Chamberlain and King are graduate students at Cornell's Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva, NY, working in the laboratories of food scientists Andy Rao and Terry Acree. The group, an outgrowth of the Food Science Club at Cornell, started meeting last fall to brainstorm new product ideas in anticipation of entering the competition. Our initial survey of the local pizza market - a niche that is very easy to identify among students determined what people wanted in a new pizza product. In general, toasters and ovens give a much crisper product than microwave ovens.