Americans consume an average of 30 poundsof cheese per person a year, or about 9 billionpounds. Five billion pounds of dried wheyproteins, the co-products of cheesemanufacture, are produced, but less than 50%of these are used in food manufacturing. Therest is used as a low-cost additive to animalfeed. The nominee realized that if theseunderutilized proteins could be modified, theycould be used for many functional applicationsin foods, such as snack products, where thecheese whey proteins would boost the proteincontent of the snack products, thus increasingthe value of whey protein. Snack foods are amajor dietary component for many U.S.consumers, providing over 40% of the totalcaloric intake. Many crunchy favorites aremade from high-starch products such as cornflour. On average, these products consist of3-5% protein, with the remainder of ingredientscomprising mostly carbohydrates, fats, andsweeteners. High carbohydrate snacks arepartly blamed for rising obesity.Dr. Onwulata developed an extrusion processthat changes the structure and texture of wheyproteins, making them easier to add to foodswhile still retaining crunchy properties. Thenewly developed texturized whey proteins canbe used to increase by up to 35% the protein infoods such as breakfast cereals, corn puffs,cheese curls, and energy bars. Several high-protein snacks targeted to fight obesity thatwere developed through a CRADA withHarden Foods, Inc., a minority-ownedcompany in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, areready for market. Using this ARS patent-pending texturization technology, HardenFoods has successfully produced market-readysnack products with reduced carbohydrates.Harden Foods and several large companieshave submitted applications to license thistechnology.