A team of four food science students from Brigham Young University recently won first place and brought home $10,000 from the Idaho Milk Processors Association's Product Development Competition.

The students beat out teams from several Intermountain West universities, including Utah State University, with their Pudding Quakes creation. For the Aug. 14 competition, students Christine Shearer, Christian Griffin, Amy Payne and Kari Grether developed a treat that can be shaken into a milkshake or eaten as a pudding.

"It starts off as a pudding," said the team's advisor, assistant professor Mike Dunn. "You could open the top and get a spoon and eat it like a pudding."

Dunn said the product was marketed toward the eight- to 12-year-old "tween" age group and tested well with kids and their parents.

The product is 80-percent dairy, so parents enjoyed the healthy aspect of the treat, while children thought the different uses of the pudding were fun.

"I think they just liked being able to shake up their food and kind of play with their food," he said.

Utah State University came in second place with a yogurt-based topping similar to Cool Whip.

Half of the $10,000 in prize money will go to the department for scholarships, while team members will split the remaining $5,000. Dunn said the product will be further refined and may soon have a patent.