[Faculty of Health and Nutrition] Product planning (Ootora Kamaboko x Otemae University) is underway for Keihan Department Store's "Autumn Grand Thanksgiving Festival"!

The third meeting regarding product planning for the "Autumn Grand Thanksgiving Festival," which will be held at Keihan Department Store for 20 days in October, took place on July 2nd at the Osaka Castle Campus.

Following on from last time, in addition to the planning staff from Keihan Department Store, the factory manager and Deputy Director sales manager from Ootora Kamaboko Co., Ltd., which is in charge of manufacturing and selling the planned products, visited our school. Based on the products proposed by the students (team name: Water <fish (kamaboko) + autumn>) at the previous meeting, prototypes were made and a tasting session was held.

The theme for the Autumn Grand Thanksgiving Festival is "Magowayasashii" (beans, sesame, wakame seaweed, vegetables, fish, shiitake mushrooms, and potatoes), which is an acronym of the first letters of ingredients that promote a healthy diet.

The students devised products combining various ingredients based on this theme. Their ideas were displayed as products, and the factory manager explained the ingenuity and key points of each product during manufacturing. They then took turns tasting them. The experience of actually tasting the prototypes, which combined the deliciousness of the kamaboko itself with the skills and ingenuity of the factory manager who knows the company's products inside and out, was invaluable for the students.

Next time, we will finally reach the final stage towards completing the product. During this meeting, various challenges and areas for improvement were identified, so the students will take these into consideration and work towards creating an even better product.

(Source: Faculty of Health and Nutrition)