Beauty tea receives honorable mention at food show.

A team of Cornell food science students garnered honorable mention for the "cosmeceutical" TranquiliTea at the recent Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) annual meeting in June. Cornell students went up against five other teams, which presented a variety of other applications.

According to Kathryn Boor, professor and chair of food science at Cornell, the team was beat out, respectively, by Ready-to-Dough, an allergen-free cookie dough; Dream Pies, pumpkin pie on a stick; and Ediballs, which are "balls" of peanut butter and jelly along with pita bread.

TranquiliTea, with its slogan "Beautify From the Inside Out," was developed by 15 students on Cornell's Food Science Product Development Team. The cucumber-honeydew melon-flavored tea has 75 calories per 375 ml (about 12.7oz.) and "offers all of the exceptional health and beauty benefits of tea, honey, aloe vera and vitamin E," according to the team's proposal, which touted the tea's high levels of antioxidants to promote healthy skin and well-being. Aloe is the star ingredient in this particular formulation.

Students intended their product to be packaged in long, slender glass bottles made from at least 50% recycled glass with a corn polymer label. They also envisioned selling the tea individually through gyms, health spas and high-end retailers.