CPP Salsa Now on Sale at Farm Store

The Farm Store is now offering a unique restaurant-style salsa created by Cal Poly Pomona food science and technology students with ingredients grown on the campus farm.

Food science and technology students have long generated good product ideas in the major’s product development course.

The Department of Nutrition and Food Science has faced numerous challenges in bringing these ideas to the market. From navigating licensing requirements to coping with a lack of facilities and the unexpected hurdles of the COVID pandemic, the journey has been far from easy.

However, the effort was revived when Professor Martin Sancho-Madriz, who had been the department chair, returned as interim dean of the Huntley College of Agriculture.

Sancho-Madriz and Professor Gabriel Davidov-Pardo proposed the idea of developing a salsa to be sold at the Farm Store.

Student Natalee Wolley worked on developing the idea, which follows a unique “farm to jar” concept for a restaurant-style salsa using tomatoes, onions and jalapeños grown on the campus farm.

After numerous iterations, she created the formulation and conducted sensory tests to validate the product's appeal.

Lecturer Dianne Trinh played a key role in implementing the salsa project. Trinh, who has taught at Cal Poly Pomona for eight years, owns Superior Food Tech, a food consulting firm in Garden Grove with the necessary licensing and facilities to produce the salsa.

 Cal Poly Pomona food science and technology students Truong Minh Nguyen and Adan Cadenas-Arzate are interning at Trinh’s company and work on the salsa project.

They played a crucial role in scaling up the process for production, producing the salsa, and conducting quality control checks.

Supplies are limited, so get yours at the Farm Store before they sell out!