65. A Brave Nuworld

UMN Twin Cities dairy researchers collaborated with researchers at the University of Wisconsin in 1947 to create Nuworld, a white-blue “space age” cheese described as the first new cheese in more than 500 years. Nuworld and it’s popular spreadable variety above are still in production today and can be purchased at Goldy’s Smokehouse on the St. Paul campus.

66. The Legendary Honeycrisp Apple

The Honeycrisp apple, developed at UMN Twin Cities, was introduced in 1991. The apple is a sweet-tart variety known for its explosive, juicy crunch, resulting from large cell structures. It has a yellow-red blush and a balanced sugar-acid flavor, making it excellent for fresh eating, salads, and baking in pies or sauces. It’s also known for its long storage life and versatility in both sweet and savory dishes, pairing well with salty cheeses.

67. Crookston’s Banana Tree

The UMN Crookston campus includes a historic banana tree. The root stock of the campus tree is around 116 years old. The banana tree lives inside the campus greenhouse, where students can watch it grow and learn about its habits. The first Crookston class to ever get to eat bananas from the tree was in 1929.

68. Flavor Research

Gary Reineccius helped build the Flavor Research and Education Center in 2011, described as the first of its kind at a U.S. university, at UMN Twin Cities.

69. The First Bundt Pan

UMN Twin Cities alum H. David Dalquist cast the first Bundt pan in aluminum at Nordic Ware in 1950, adding the “t” partly to protect the name as a trademark.

70. Shelf Life

UMN Twin Cities professor Ted Labuza’s food shelf-life models gave food makers a way to predict browning, rancidity, packaging needs, and “use by” dates.

71. O Captain! My Captain!

Donald Koncak, who earned a degree in mechanical engineering from UMN Twin Cities in 1948, was part of a team that developed Cap’n Crunch cereal.

72. A Vintage Lentil Soup Recipe

In 2023, James Ford Bell Library staff cooked a lentil soup recipe from a 235-year-old French cookbook from the collection at UMN Twin Cities.

73. Precision Agriculture

Pierre Robert’s team at UMN Twin Cities developed the Soil Survey Information System in the 1980s, one of the early GIS tools that helped launch precision agriculture.

74. Puffed Wheat

Alexander Anderson, who graduated from UMN Twin Cities in 1894 and later returned as an assistant professor of botany, invented the process for creating puffed wheat and puffed rice.

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