Flight Bites are carrying five Iowa State students to the finals of the Nutritious Food For Kids Competition. These five students were inspired by the Disney movie, “Planes,” to create their healthy and nutritious children’s snack.

Disney Consumer Products and the Institute of Food Technologists Student Association (IFTSA) are hosting the national competition at the IFT Annual Meeting, June 21-24, in New Orleans, Florida.

In the competition, each team was to create a snack associated with a Disney movie. The snacks must incorporate at least half a serving of a fruit, vegetable, low-fat dairy product or whole grains, according to the IFT website.

First round preliminary proposals were due by February 15, where they were then judged whether or not their team would be one of the five finalists.

“Our team is so honored. We are ecstatic to be going to New Orleans,” Iowa State’s team captain, Celia Bravard, and a senior in food science and human nutrition, said. “It was a great honor to apply to the competition, and then to be accepted to the finals is just beyond belief. Were really really excited.”

Flight Bite is a bite-sized snack made up of dried apples, oats, quinoa, jam and a variety of Indian spices. It is also dairy, soy, egg, peanut, tree nut, and gluten free.

“We did quite a bit of research on food trends and hand held, on the go, snacks are super trendy right now,” said Bravard. “Each team will be judged on product description, nutritional value and benefit, commercialized process description, product quality and safety, consumer appeal, novelty, storytelling, product taste and presentation skills,” said Caroline Campbell, director of the Disney competition, per College of Human Sciences News.

According to the IFT website, one travel grant of 1,500 dollars, to cover travel expenses, will be given to each of the five teams.

Karen Valde, a junior in food science and culinary science, said, “I’m excited to kind of see more of what the professional side of food science is going to look like. And especially going in a competition with other people, it’s going to be fun to see how we can all interact together.”

The grand prize winner will receive 7,500 dollars. First place will receive 3,500 dollars and three honorary prizes of 1,500 dollars each will be given to the remaining teams.

“Our team definitely has gained experience. We’ve been able to collaborate with professors get hand on experience in the lab doing technical analysis used in the food industry,” Bravard said. “It’s been really cool to see our product go from literally an idea on paper, to a product that we can actually physically feed people.”