HOWARD — Four members of the East Knox FFA competed in the State FFA Food Science Career Development Event on Jan. 25 in the Parker Food Science building at The Ohio State University where they finished 13th place out of a field of teams from across Ohio.
Team members were seniors Dylan Springer, Hayden Baker, and Aiden Kapper and junior Mackenzie Wilson.
In the contest, team members complete an online test on the basic principles of food science and technology.
They were tasked with finding correct responses to customer problems, as well as identifying food safety and sanitation problems by discovering violations to good manufacturing practices.
They also had to identify equipment used in food processing, calculate food nutrition math problems, and complete sensory evaluations by doing taste tests and aroma identifications.
Finally, they completed a team activity where they developed a food product including the nutrition label and illustrations.
To qualify for the state the team placed first out of 8 teams in the District 7 contest held earlier at Centerburg High School in Knox County with the top four individuals making up the team score.
Individually in the district contest, Mackenzie Wilson placed second, Dylan Springer finished third, Aiden Kapper was fourth, and Hayden Baker finished 14th out of 60 contestants.
This is the seventh year that East Knox FFA has competed in the state Food Science Career Development Event.