KC Counts:
Let me start with that little factoid about the average consumption of ice cream by Americans every year. I was surprised that I eat 4 gallons of ice cream in a year. That seems like a lot.
Dr. Sergio Martinez:
I probably contribute to a little more than that.
KC Counts:
Maybe you're busting that curve, Well, I'm fascinated to know about your work, but first of all, how you ended up studying ice cream.
Dr. Sergio Martinez:
I work with food products. That's my research area. And how I ended up working with ice cream, I was in my previous institution, South Dakota State University. I was not working with ice cream, I was working with lactose and other dairy products. One time I got a call from that company and asked me, what are you doing new in terms of ice cream? ice cream innovation. I said, I have nothing.
KC Counts:
Perfection. Does it need any work?
Dr. Sergio Martinez:
Yes. And then they asked me, well, can you propose something? So, okay, yeah, I can. And then I started getting the conversations and we went very informal conversations. And then after a while, they told me, we like what you're proposing. And then that happened when they told me that, okay, that was good. We did a very short experiment.
KC Counts:
What was your proposal?
Dr. Sergio Martinez:
My proposal was to try different ways to make ice cream. It kind of go into innovation.
KC Counts:
On the production side.
Dr. Sergio Martinez:
Yes, on the production side. So then I moved to New Mexico City University. So there was nothing, there was no continuation until one day they contacted me again and they asked me, okay, let's do this one very seriously. So then what happened at that time, what I proposed is using equipment, a different type of equipment that are not commonly used in food products. Actually, this equipment come from oil industry. And how about if we use those equipment to make an ice cream?
KC Counts:
And what type of equipment is that?
Dr. Sergio Martinez:
Equipment is used to clean oils. So you apply a little force, mechanical force and shearing force to basically eliminate all the impurities in oils. And then my idea with that one is if it work with oils, I can modify the proteins in a unique way. that those proteins will bind water a lot stronger. So when it melts, the water takes longer to separate.
KC Counts:
So you're telling me our ice cream won't melt as fast?
Dr. Sergio Martinez:
It will melt slower. That was my whole point, melted slower.
KC Counts:
Nice.
KC Counts:
And so you embark on this starting out as an idea. Obviously, you have to find out if it really works, right?
Dr. Sergio Martinez:
Yes. Well, first I need to find an equipment manufacturer who is willing to donate the equipment because this one costs money. And then when I contact the company, I say, could you please loan the equipment for me? And they say yes. Well, it was more complicated than that because they want to get into a little.
KC Counts:
Back and forth first, right?
Dr. Sergio Martinez:
And that company wants to get into food products, not just oil. So that was the original agreement. And then I contacted the company in that case was Wells Enterprises, which is Bill Bunny. And then we started the research agreement with the idea that I'm going to do the research that modified we innovate how ice cream is made and the equipment manufacturer get the benefit that their equipment is the one to be the highlight of the research.
KC Counts:
And so you've received some significant grant money to conduct your research. Tell us about that.
Dr. Sergio Martinez:
Yes, well, firstly was the equipment manufacturer provided the income contribution by donating the equipment, which is significant. And then Wells Enterprises provided, I believe, close to $400,000 for four years. And that is money directly for an industry. Now, after while I started working with this one, it was year-by-year renewal. So I was able to renew with the contract. four years in a row. And we were working really nice. And at some point, they have some changes in the administration and decided to go different directives. Nothing to do about the research and all that, but it happened all the time with industrial partners.
KC Counts:
Sure. Now, separately from that, you identified an area where, or they did, where they were losing a lot of product. And so they're looking for a way to obviously recoup that product. Is it similar science that we're talking about? regarding how to save more product.
Dr. Sergio Martinez:
This one, it goes very differently. For instance, the first one I worked with Wells Enterprises was a traditional product. You aim a product. You aim a technology and the idea is to obtain a product. After this project, it opens the door for a lot more. So we started working. I started working with 10 companies. We call ourselves the Ice Cream Waste Alliance. There are 10 companies across the country. How about that? Yes. It's a cool name, right? Yes.
KC Counts:
There's a group for that. All right. It's like apps. There's a group for everything.
Dr. Sergio Martinez:
Yes. So we don't have a WhatsApp group, but we call ourselves the Ice Cream Waste Alliance. So then what is the waste I'm referring to? There are many names for that. It is waste, but it's not really waste. It's essentially if you go to the supermarket and you see all the different flavors, colors of ice cream, Most of them come from very few factories. There are not many factories in the country that produce just vanilla or just chocolate or something like that. So essentially, we are producing, for instance, vanilla, and all of a sudden we have to change it to chocolate. Whatever is remaining on the pipes and equipment, we can reuse it because it will be all mixed. There's no color matching, no flavor matching.
KC Counts:
Well, I love chocolate and vanilla mixed together.
Dr. Sergio Martinez:
What they call this one, bubble gum flavor.
KC Counts:
Right.
Dr. Sergio Martinez:
I don't want to mix good.
KC Counts:
No, I don't want that. No, not at all.
Dr. Sergio Martinez:
So that one, that product is still good, but it cannot be sold. So it never leaves the factory. It's still sanitarily good, but it's considered waste in that sense. So there are many ways we can call it waste, byproduct; Some companies call it land loss because essentially never leaves the factory. No, There is not much attraction to do something with it because it's part of doing business. So because you know there's going to be big losses in that sense. So the only option companies are doing right previously was just giving to pigs.
KC Counts:
I see.
Dr. Sergio Martinez:
And they were well-fed pigs.
KC Counts:
They were happy in the summertime to get their ice cream, I
bet.
Dr. Sergio Martinez:
Yes. So and then my word I propose to analyze what we have in that one is essentially melted ice cream. We cannot reward that. You cannot put it back into the equipment. Fine. So what is inside? The main component or the component that has most economic value is fat. Water has no much value. Sugars, not really. Proteins, there's not enough quantity of that. So the fat is the one that has the value. So I focus on the technology to recover the fat. We were able to purify the fat and now we can put it back into the ice cream. So what it means is millions and millions of dollars in benefit of using that. Now, That was one component. The other argument is, well, if you use peanut, for instance, in one product, you can put it back because of the allergens.
KC Counts:
Yes.
Dr. Sergio Martinez:
And there are so many allergens involved. Fine. So what we did is I requested samples from different companies, all whatever they got, whatever they have in their factory. They send it to NMSU. My students receive that and we have, we taste ice cream from different, from different.
KC Counts:
What a job! How do you get that job? Okay, nice.
Dr. Sergio Martinez:
So then after that, we remove that, we recover the fat and we were able to remove the allergens. So essentially we are recovering 99% pure fat with no allergens with a potential use in ice cream. And this one is a scalable technology. We are working in the, we have two provisional patents and eventually this one will go to a large scale production.
KC Counts:
Now what is the timeline do you think for that to kind of come to fruition?
Dr. Sergio Martinez:
Probably in a year, year and a half.
KC Counts:
And you've already been able to create that and have folks sample it. So tell us how it was.
Dr. Sergio Martinez:
So it has been a very different project because it's not a traditional research project that you focus on the theory and the fundamentals and how it works because as a scientist we are trying to understand. Not so much solve problems, we just create questions. But this work is directly funded by industry has been a mix of that. And then In this project, I report directly to the owners of those factories. So the approach is very different. Yes, I deal with the scientific component with my students, but when I present results, it's with basically business people. And it's a fine line how to communicate and how to find the right results without going into boring stuff like the fundamentals, but without...
KC Counts:
Like chemistry?
Dr. Sergio Martinez:
Yeah, the chemistry. But we have to understand the chemistry. And that's one component. The other one that is getting very interesting is since these companies saw the potential of economic value on that, now the question is how are we going to put it on the label? The regulatory agencies, how you recover a fact that we know used to have peanuts. How are you going to put it in the new ice cream that has no peanuts? Is that going to be a problem in terms of regulations? Now I'm dealing with regulatory issues. I have meetings with regulatory agencies talking about it, how we can go about this?
KC Counts:
Well, and people, you know, how much pushback is there in general because people are concerned about tweaking our food, right?
Dr. Sergio Martinez:
Yes. So, and then once you mention all that tweaking of the food, it all comes down to perception. I always tell my students, in my classes, there are no many ways you can slice a piece of bread. So companies, they don't have secrets. They have a list of ingredients that are approved and that's all you have. So that idea that is all secret and no.
KC Counts:
That's mysterious and we don't know what the effects will be. Well, tell me about scoops for science.
Dr. Sergio Martinez:
Oh, that one is a nice story. So as you know, MSU has been on issues with retention of presidents. Let's put it that way.
KC Counts:
Okay.
Dr. Sergio Martinez:
So when they announced a new president, I was joking with some faculties like, you guys, we have to do something. We are not that bad. I mean, why they leave? So and then they said, let's make an ice cream. Maybe we just laugh about it. And I'll just stop that. And then one of my colleagues came back and said, let's do it. Okay. So how? And then we started thinking about, okay. The new president is his roots, he's Italian. So what we have here is New Mexican. So how we, what about if we combine something Italian? That was one option, but they said, let's come out with biscottis, which are so Italian, and pecans, which are so New Mexican.
KC Counts:
That sounds delicious.
Dr. Sergio Martinez:
Yes, that's what we did. And then I trolled the challenge to my students. I asked, OK, let's create a new ice cream. And we come out with 10 different ideas. Some of them were not good. And then we narrowed down to four and then two and then eventually one. And that's what we call the Fermi Paradox. And the name was also coming with the same idea that Italian, New Mexico and all that. We created the ice cream, we just did it for fun and then eventually started calling a lot of attention because people wants to try the ice cream, people wants to know about the ice cream. So that's how I was contacted by the scoop of science and.
KC Counts:
Scoops for Science.
Dr. Sergio Martinez:
Scoops for Science. And if they can have some samples for that. So I asked my students, let's do it. And we send the samples to DC and I think they posted on social media that was a huge success. I'm glad to hear that.
KC Counts:
So NMSU over the last decade or so has really been churning out, you know, products, wine and beer and whiskey and a lot of liquors, but other things too. So will this ice cream maybe one day become the official Aggie ice cream?
Dr. Sergio Martinez:
That was part of the plan. That was part of the plan. Now we have to do many arrangements because you will need to have full-time employees to actually sell. It will be difficult for a faculty who's traditional teaching and research to start getting into the business. I don't know if I'm going to succeed in business, so that's not my expertise.
KC Counts:
It's not what you do.
Dr. Sergio Martinez:
No, I'm scared of going that direction.
KC Counts:
I feel like I could sell ice cream all day long, but I'd also eat it all day long.
Dr. Sergio Martinez:
Yeah, that's a problem. I will eat it all. I will not sell it.
KC Counts:
So we'll see what happens in the future. In the meantime, I don't imagine there's a way for people to try this ice cream, or will there be some opportunities for folks to kind of taste what you do?
Dr. Sergio Martinez:
Yes. Sometimes we met students when we just started making ice cream, different ice cream just for fun. Or even in math class, we just do it for fun. One time we did a tequila ice cream and it was not good.
KC Counts:
No.
Dr. Sergio Martinez:
It was not the real tequila. I want to clarify that one, otherwise I would be in trouble.
KC Counts:
Well, maybe that's the problem.
Dr. Sergio Martinez:
Yeah, maybe. So there was the tequila flavor. So we added tequila flavor. I thought it would be good, but once you try it, was too overwhelming.
KC Counts:
Okay.
Dr. Sergio Martinez:
So we also tried mango. We also tried and a lot of the different crazy stuff. And in my class, I ask the students, come up with some ideas. What flavor you want to try? And we will figure it out.
KC Counts:
What is your class that you do that in?
Dr. Sergio Martinez:
It's called the Food Science One. It's basically a general class. It's one of those classes that is open for all students on campus. Okay.
KC Counts:
So that's your ticket to creating your own ice cream and tasting it as well. it's fascinating. So stay in touch about how things progress from here. What is important for people to know that I have neglected to ask you about so far?
Dr. Sergio Martinez:
I never got this type of questions. I've been asking a lot of questions about ice cream, but never this type of question. I don't know.
KC Counts:
Okay, then that means we covered it all. Well, thank you so much for telling us all about it. Good luck with the rest of the research. And I know that you're going to be jumping through those hoops with your patents and FDA approval, right? Yes, we're working on that. All right, so you'll have to get back in touch and let us know when that comes through so we can do a follow-up.
Dr. Sergio Martinez:
Yeah, my pleasure.
KC Counts:
All right, thank you so much. Great meeting you.
