Incorporating community culture in teaching food innovation: Ideation, prototyping, and storytelling

At most institutions, food innovation courses do not highlight the role of community culture, a blind spot that otherwise could connect the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals. This study presents a unique approach to teaching food product innovation, incorporating community culture in ideation, prototyping, and storytelling. Through participatory action research, NUTR 435 Experimental Foods at Montana State University partnered with the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes to teach culturally appropriate product innovation. The class visited the food system stakeholders at the Flathead Reservation and conducted focus groups to gather food memories, understand culinary practices, and recognize product preference of the tribal members. Based on the cultural experiences obtained from the community, the students created smoked trout prototypes and developed recommended recipes for using the smoked trout. The recommended recipes used Native ingredients to tell the tribes’ food stories. The students were affirmative on the importance of incorporating culture in food innovations in both the pre- and post-semester learning assessments. Yet, after the semester, the students’ attitude and knowledge on this topic became more positive and dynamic, focusing on empowering the community in story and identity telling. Future improvements include recommending a preparatory course in Native American food systems, collaborating with a tribal class, encouraging engagement with the tribal partners beyond the class, and implementing policies to guard the cultural property of the tribal communities. This study presents pilot results for food science educators to consider incorporating community culture in their instructions to address food system challenges.