November 29, 2023 — Reporting from the Food Ingredients Europe (FiE) Innovation Awards in Frankfurt, Germany, Food Ingredients First interviews the winners of each category. Among the winners, ChickP won in the plant-based category for its 90% pure and functional chickpea protein and MycoTech was recognized for its fermented pea and rice protein powder.
From start-ups to multinationals to nonprofits, nominated finalists in each category showcased the best of the ingredients industry’s efforts to make food and beverage products healthier, more sustainable and tastier .
The jury, comprised of esteemed industry professionals, rigorously evaluated each nomination across the six categories, and the winners were announced at an awards ceremony last night.
The judging panel was chaired by Colin Dennis, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of IFIS and the British Nutrition Foundation, and included João Brites, Director of Growth and Innovation at HowGood, a not-for-profit organisation; Efi Leontopoulou, head of scientific and regulatory affairs at EAS Strategies; and Ian D. Healey, editorial director at Dr. Harnisch Publications.
Ofi’s Carbon Scenario Planner has won the Sustainability Innovation Award for the second year in a row at FiE.Sustainable Innovation Award
This award recognizes an organization or company for its measurable supply system that demonstrates environmental, economic or socially sustainable practices in the food and beverage industry. Preference was given to systems introduced or significantly improved in the last two years.
Olam food ingredients (ofi) beat out Cargill and KOA Switzerland for the award due to its efforts to advance climate action through its Carbon Scenario Planner (CSP).
An OFI spokesperson explains: “Our innovation helps businesses understand how to reduce their carbon emissions over the next year. It’s a digital platform that allows you to understand your carbon hotspots, absorptions and reductions.
“We think I won this award because it’s an incredible industrial tool.”
According to OFI, 2024 will be another important year for our industry to accelerate the collaborative effort to combat climate change. Meeting this challenge will require sharing and transferring data on emissions and reduction plans.
This is why the company developed its CSP, integrated into its AtSource sustainability management system, a tool that won the category award for the second year in a row at FiE.
The CSP makes it possible to model the results of different decarbonization interventions adapted to local contexts, in order to be able to work with our clients to plan and cost climate actions. It helps customers solve the complex and challenging problem of Scope 3 emissions that occur across a company’s value chain and make up the majority of the food and beverage industry’s carbon footprint. With this degree of data sharing and transparency, the OFI claims to be able to plan and cost climate actions for maximum impact.
Innovation Award for Diversity and Inclusion
This category recognizes an organization or company for creating a work environment that provides equal opportunity to all employees, regardless of gender, race, religious background, sexual orientation, and physical or mental abilities.
Solidaridad won the award over Cargill for its efforts to promote women in agriculture through its program to feminize agricultural supply chains.
A Solidaridad spokesperson tells us why he thinks the company won the award: “Our pitch is about how we get more women into farmers’ supply chains and how companies can invest in the women who are partners in these supply chains. We have a supply chain framework and organization that supports women farmers.
Plant Innovation Award
This award rewards an organization or company that has developed the best ingredient or application of plant origin in terms of sensoriality and
ChickP won the plant-based innovation award for its 90% pure and functional chickpea protein. physical properties or application costs.
ChickP won the award for its 90% pure and functional chickpea protein. The other nominees in the category were: Bunge for its Beleaf PlantBetter, Enough for its Abunda Mycoprotein, Ferm Food for its clean label multifunctional binders and Hi-Food & Alianza Team for Mirror Tissue.
“Our versatile 90% isolated chickpea protein can be incorporated into many applications. We showed the judges some of the non-dairy applications, like cheesecake, barista milk and cheddar, and they really liked it,” Liat Lachish Levy, CEO of the company, tells us.
Sensory Innovation Award
This category recognizes an organization or company that has developed the best ingredient or process in terms of improving the sensory experience of food products, such as taste, texture, smell and appearance, without significantly increasing application costs.
Corbion won the award for its Purac Powder Max, a range of ingredients that allows manufacturers to produce sour paste and tablet confectionery with a superior sour taste.
The company beat out AAK and Handary for its groundbreaking innovation.
Corbion’s global marketing director explains: “Our Purac Powder MAX is an acidic powder that you can apply in confectionery. This is a new innovation and you can have different particle sizes, allowing it to be used in applications other than confectionery due to finer particles.
“We are pleased to be recognized with this award as it confirms that in developing Purac Powder MAX we have focused on delivering innovations that make a difference for our customers,” says Willy van Arkel, Senior Director of Development sales representative and product manager at Corbion.
“Great innovations like this enable consumers to have new and better experiences. This product is a game changer.
Purac Powder MAX is a highly stable, non-hygroscopic acidic powder that allows confectionery producers to develop new ways of products offering distinctive acidity. Due to its unique structural properties, the ingredient is also available in different particle sizes.
The combination of these attributes gives candy makers options they didn’t have before, such as incorporating sour powder into all layers of hard candy to allow for faster flavor release and even to provide sourness. at several points. And because it is so stable and does not require a fat coating, Purac Powder MAX allows tart confections to retain their shelf-fresh qualities for longer.
Health Innovation Award
This award recognizes an organization or company that has developed the best ingredient or application in terms of proven contribution to digestive, cognitive, immune or physical health.
The nominees in this category were ADM, Cornille and MycoTechnology. MycoTechnology won the award for its FermentIQ PTP, a shiitake fermented pea and rice protein powder that helps unlock the nutritional potential of plant proteins by improving protein quality and digestibility.
Emily McCann, Marketing Specialist at MycoTechnology, explains: “Our fermentation process is really new. We use mushroom mycelium, the root of mushrooms, against bacteria or fungus or mold or something like that, and that really speaks to the cleanliness and quality of the product that we produce.
By using fermentation methods, the company improves the digestibility of the protein powder.
“Fermentation is obviously a hot topic,” she continues, “but when you say fermentation, people automatically think health and then on top of that, you say mushroom-based ingredients and everyone is immediately interested.
“We have a plethora of unknown fungi that we know nothing about, and how we harvest them and then use them to make our proteins is fascinating,” McCann notes.
Food Technology Innovation Award
This award recognizes an organization or company that has developed an innovative solution or service in technical, processing, manufacturing, packaging/or waste reduction for food ingredients or finished products.
FrieslandCampina Professional won the award for its Kievit Vana Cappa X01 foam booster, which produces high-pressure nitrogen bubbles in powder form and allows consumers to instantly create a frothy cappuccino coffee.
MycoTechnology won the award for its FermentIQ PTP, a shiitake fermented pea and rice protein powder.
The company beat out Arbiom, Andritz and Nizo for their innovations in the category.
According to Carolien Roseboom, the company’s global marketing manager, the foam booster “turns anything in food and drinks into foam, solving the problem of thin, small and unstable collecting foam.”
“With this innovation, the possibilities are endless to create new structures and textures,” she emphasizes. “This allows us to create a stable cappuccino foam, overcoming cloudiness in drinks and can even make desserts more airy, for example.”
Additionally, they add that this foam booster can be used in catering but also in retail spaces: “Instant and three-in-one coffee blenders can also be enhanced with our foam booster technology.
Finally, Angélique Cachia, Senior Director of Content and Digital at FiE, adds: “By highlighting some of the most brilliant innovations in the food ingredients industry, the Innovation Awards aim to recognize the efforts of companies and organizations. We hope they will spur more investment and progress in the food sector, which has a huge global impact on public health, nutrition and our environment.
By Elizabeth Green, with additional reporting by Gaynor Selby at FiE in Frankfurt, Germany
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