{"id":41097,"date":"2019-07-17T15:50:41","date_gmt":"2019-07-17T19:50:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/?p=41097"},"modified":"2020-02-28T12:47:46","modified_gmt":"2020-02-28T17:47:46","slug":"uri-jwu-and-fix-combine-to-unlock-power-of-the-smarter-sweetener","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/2019\/07\/17\/uri-jwu-and-fix-combine-to-unlock-power-of-the-smarter-sweetener\/","title":{"rendered":"URI, JWU and FIX combine to unlock power of \u2018The Smarter Sweetener\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/strong>Culinary, design students apply health benefits research uncovered in maple<\/h3>\n

Students from around the region created tasty treats and demonstrated innovative uses of a local crop that shows promising health benefits as they demonstrated the culinary \u2014 and medicinal \u2014 versatility of maple.<\/p>\n

The Maple internship program at the Food Innovation Nexus (FIX) at Johnson & Wales University is part of a federally funded initiative at the University of Rhode Island to promote the maple industry throughout the Northeast, stressing the potential health benefits of the native tree. URI College of Pharmacy Professor Navindra Seeram<\/a> and his team have worked for a decade to unlock the health benefits of maple<\/a>. They have identified more than 67 bioactive natural plant compounds with potential health benefits, including stabilizing blood glucose levels, fighting inflammation and even helping fight wrinkles.<\/p>\n

\"\"Seeram\u2019s Bioactive Botanical Research Laboratory<\/a> has partnered with the Food Innovation Nexus<\/a> and JWU to demonstrate various ways to incorporate maple into one\u2019s diet to take advantage of its healthy properties. Six students in a four-week internship program used pure maple ingredients to create everything from a healthy maple ice cream designed to be easier for older adults to swallow, to an edible maple birthday candle that can be used to celebrate, while sweetening your favorite dessert. Their experiments took place in the Food Innovation Design Lab located at JWU, where the FIX executes its own product design and development programs.<\/p>\n

\"\"The students, along with JWU chef TJ Delle Donne and FIX design experts, show the diverse uses for the local crop, creating such entrees as couscous with maple vinaigrette, and tuna poke with maple drizzle; desserts like maple gummie bears and chocolate bars; and drinks including maple bubble tea and maple hot cocoa, complete with maple marshmallows to float on top.<\/p>\n

\"\"\u201cWe\u2019ve been working with the students on ways to incorporate maple into their dishes without changing the taste profile,\u201d Delle Donne said. \u201cAnywhere there is cane sugar, or brown sugar in the vinaigrette, any form of sweetener, we replaced with maple to make it a healthier dish while still tasting great.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"The natural sweetener was on full display in the students\u2019 creations, particularly in Katie Devries\u2019 and Morgan Failla\u2019s line of healthier ice creams. The fruit, fiber and calcium-packed line of \u201cMarty\u2019s Maple Creemee\u201d ice creams include \u201cCaramel Bran-pa\u201d and \u201cBanana Grandma.\u201d<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s not just food the students have created. Two students aim to revolutionize the $3 billion a year birthday candle industry. Olivia Muschelle and Charlotte Clement took advantage of maple\u2019s plasticity to form edible candles that melt as they burn to add a tasty and nutritious topping to birthday cakes or pancakes.<\/p>\n

\"\"\u201cCandles are waxy, they drip on cakes, and the leftover candle doesn\u2019t even get used; it\u2019s wasted,\u201d Muchelle said. \u201cAnd kids love to lick the candles but they can\u2019t eat them. These taste great and are completely safe to eat.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another group of students took aim at the toy industry, specifically edible science kits that are among the top sellers in any toy aisle. Leah Yao\u2019s and Jon Nardis\u2019 \u201cMighty Maple\u201d kits teach children how to make a humming bird feeder, a maple comb dessert bowl and the ever-popular slime. The ingredients \u2014 the star of which is maple, of course \u2014 are safe to eat.<\/p>\n

\"\"\u201cWe\u2019ve taken a deep dive into maple and identified kids as one of the best markets,\u201d Yao said. \u201cEdible science kits are a top seller, but they have confusing instructions, unnatural ingredients and they don\u2019t taste good. Our kits are healthy, fun for kids and taste great.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is just the first of what is expected to be many projects for the Collaborative to Communicate Maple Benefits, Seeram said, as the group combines the scientific breakthroughs in his Bioactive Botanical Research Laboratory with the culinary breakthroughs in JWU’s food lab.<\/p>\n

\"\"\u201cWhat we\u2019ve found in our lab is that maple has the most diverse chemistry in terms of phytonutrients. If you\u2019re stranded on a deserted island and could bring only one food, maple is the food for you since it contains macronutrients (mainly as sucrose) as well as micronutrients and a diverse array of phytonutrients,\u201d Seeram said. \u201cWe were just missing one piece \u2014 the culinary application of the science we were doing. That\u2019s where JWU and FIX came in. We\u2019re putting the brightest young minds together to find ways to consume all those healthy compounds in a natural sweetener that tastes great. This gives maple permission to play across all meals. It\u2019s not just for breakfast anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"The partnership between URI and the FIX began after the United States Department of Agriculture\u2019s Acer Access and Development Program awarded nearly half a million dollars to researchers at URI to raise public awareness of maple products and the potential benefits of the natural sweetener, increase consumption and promote the industry. Yinjiao Ye, professor of communication studies in the College of Arts and Sciences, and Christy Ashley, associate professor of marketing in the College of Business, join Seeram as principal investigators on the three-year, $499,427 grant.<\/p>\n

For more information on Seeram\u2019s work with maple and the health benefits the local crop contains, visit uri.edu\/maple<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

 Culinary, design students apply health benefits research uncovered in maple Students from around the region created tasty treats and demonstrated innovative uses of a local crop that shows promising health benefits as they demonstrated the culinary \u2014 and medicinal \u2014 versatility of maple. The Maple internship program at the Food Innovation Nexus (FIX) at Johnson […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1710,"featured_media":41100,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[35,77],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41097","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-news-research"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41097","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1710"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41097"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41097\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42726,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41097\/revisions\/42726"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}