FiE Innovation Awards: Bunge’s sustainable fat system shines while Cargill wins on “indulgence redefined”

The Fi Europe Innovation Awards, held last night in Frankfurt, Germany, celebrates people, companies, and organizations breaking new ground across the F&B industry. The nine categories showcased the diversity of the food industry. We spoke with some of the winners following their category success.

Dairy Alternative Innovation Award 

This award recognized a company that has developed the best plant-based dairy alternative ingredient. ChickP, KMC and Royal Avebe were among the finalists in this category, and Bunge won. 

The company’s entry, “Bunge’s Beleaf Plantery,” is a sustainable, versatile and unique fat system to replace dairy fat, a plant-based ingredient designed to replace anhydrous milk fat (AMF) partly or fully based on shea, coconut, and rapeseed oil, matching the melting behavior and structuring properties of AMF.

Speaking to Food Ingredients First, Ina Sieker, spreads, innovation and QFS lead at Bunge, says: “We developed a system that is a 100% replacer for dairy, and it serves the same texture attributes. It is a very unique product that cannot be found anywhere else.”

“For the wider food industry, it’s an excellent solution for sustainability and cost savings,” she explains. 

Food Manufacturing Award 

This award recognizes companies that are looking to improve manufacturing efficiency, reduce waste and/or enhance product safety in food systems. 

The panel of judges, composed of esteemed industry professionals, rigorously assessed each nomination in the nine categories during Fi Europe. Pictured: Bunge.Nutris and Planteneers were among the nominees, and GEA Process Engineering took the top spot with its next-generation RAY Plus batch freeze dryers for food applications.

This offers benefits in terms of energy efficiency and hygiene, providing a more flexible and efficient solution for the food industry.

Morten Pedersen, R&D team leader, tells us: “We managed to increase not only capacity but also reduce the energy consumption in a freeze-drying process, which is typically very energy-intensive. With our solutions, we can bring the energy levels down, so we increase the capacity and the quality of the food products and reduce food waste around the world.”

“This solution can open up new markets for the industry, new products that weren’t possible before, they might be higher in protein or better quality ingredients which offer better health options for consumers.”

Future Foodtech Innovation Award 

This award recognizes innovative processing or bioprocessing technology solutions or services, which have the potential to improve the production, functionality and/or cost of food ingredients.

NIZO Food Research and Incredo were nominated for this award, along with Cargill, who won with its entry “Cargill Indulgence Redefined - Confectionery Alternative.”

In partnership with Voyage Foods, the confectionery alternative boasts cocoa, hazelnut and peanut alternative solutions for bakery, chocolate, ice cream and cereals. The range is based on Voyage’s patented technology, gently roasting and processing lesser-used side stream raw materials.

Anne Mertens-Hyong, category director of chocolate confectionery and ice cream at Cargill, says the innovative solution “contains no dairy or nuts and is an entirely new category for the indulgence sector.”

“Fundamentally, what makes it so different is the approach of it, which sees these widely used ingredients that typically go to waste. Instead of letting these underused food materials go to waste, we’re putting them together and creating an alternative chocolate.”

“And we know there is more room for indulgence in the world,” she adds. 

Health Innovation Award

This awarded the company for developing the best ingredient or application in terms of proven contribution to digestive, cognitive, immune or physical health.

Prolactal and Novonesis were among the nominees and ADM won with its entry “ES1 (Bifidobacterium longum CECT 7347) postbiotic,”

ES1 (Bifidobacterium longum CECT 7347) is a postbiotic that is backed by preclinical and clinical studies on markers associated with gut health.

ADM’s Bastian Hormann, global marketing director sweet food, says the heat-treated postbiotic is “unlocking potential in the industry, especially for long-life dairy, carbonated soft drinks and gummies.”

“The science behind the reliability is the Innovation,” he underscores. “We are shaking up tradition in digestive health and making this area much more accessible to consumers.”

Also speaking with us from the award ceremony, Divya Mohan, director creation design and development of global health and wellness at ADM, believes this winning innovation is going to “completely change the landscape of wider F&B because getting biotics into food and beverages has previously been a struggle.”Winners were announced at the prestigious Innovation Awards ceremony during Fi Europe in Frankfurt on November 19. Pictured: GEA award winners. 

Sensory Innovation Award

This award goes to the company that has developed the best ingredient or process for enhancing the sensory experience of food products, such as taste, texture, smell and/or appearance, without significantly increasing application costs.

Phycom was nominated and Novonesis won with its entry “Novamyl BestBite: Discover a perfectly balanced bite.”

The biosolution is based on enzymatic technology that delivers a perfect balance of softness, moistness, and resilience and enhances the eating experience of freshly baked goods.

Johan Weimann, senior vice president of F&B biosolutions Europe at Novonesis, comments on why he thinks their enzyme Novamyl BestBite won: “We believe it is one of the most significant innovations in baking enzymes in the last decade.”

Sustainability Innovation Award

This awards a company for a measurable supply system that demonstrates environmental, economic and/or socially sustainable practices in the food and beverage industry.

Dossche Mills, ADM and Agrana Fruit were all nominated and AAK took the top spot with its entry “Empowering Women in Shea.” Through its AAK Kolo Nafaso direct sourcing program, it has opened new opportunities for more than 240,000 women in West Africa to improve their livelihoods, together with those of their communities.

Plant-Based Innovation Award

This award recognizes the best plant-based ingredient, or application based on a plant-based ingredient, in terms of sensory and physical properties or application costs.

Novonesis and Lesaffre were nominated, and Avebe took home the award with its entry “Say Goodbye To Flimsy Coatings!” thanks to PerfectaSOL S 200, a potato protein isolate that offers irreversible gelation upon heating, creating perfect adhesion between coating and substrate. 

With live reporting from Joshua Poole and William Bradford Nichols, at FiE 2024 in Frankfurt, Germany