FiE Innovation Awards: Panel pinpoints leading solutions for human and planetary health

29 Nov 2023 --- Reporting from the Food Ingredients Europe (FiE) Innovation Awards in Frankfurt, Germany, Food Ingredients First speaks with the winners from each category. Among the winners, ChickP won in the plant-based category for its functional pure 90% isolate chickpea protein and MycoTech was recognized for its fermented pea and rice protein powder.

From start-ups to multinationals and non-profits, the finalists nominated in each category showcased the best of the ingredient industry’s efforts to make food and drink products healthier, more sustainable and tastier.

The panel of judges, composed of esteemed industry professionals, rigorously assessed each nomination in the six categories, and the winners were announced during an awards ceremony last night. 

The judging panel was chaired by Colin Dennis, chair of the board of trustees at IFIS and the British Nutrition Foundation, and included João Brites, director of growth and innovation at non-profit HowGood; Efi Leontopoulou, manager of scientific and regulatory affairs at EAS Strategies; and Ian D. Healey, editorial director at Dr. Harnisch Publications.

Sustainability Innovation Award
This award recognizes an organization or company for a measurable supply system that demonstrates environmental, economic or socially sustainable practices in the food and drink industry. Preference was given to systems introduced or significantly improved within the past two years.

Olam food ingredients (ofi) beat Cargill and KOA Switzerland for the award due to its efforts to advance climate action through its Carbon Scenario Planner (CSP).

A spokesperson from ofi tells us: “Our innovation helps companies understand how to reduce their carbon emissions over the next year. It’s a digital platform that allows you to understand your hotspots, removals and reductions on carbon.”Defne Saral, SVP of sales EMEA at ofi, shares what the Sustainability Innovation award means for the company.

“We think ofi won the award because it’s an amazing industry tool.”

According to ofi, 2024 will be another important year for the F&B industry to accelerate the collaborative effort to tackle climate change. Addressing this challenge will rely on sharing and transferring data on emissions and reduction plans.

That’s why the company developed its CSP, built into its sustainability management system AtSource, a tool that won the category award for the second consecutive year at FiE.

The CSP allows ofi to model the outcome of different decarbonization interventions tailored to local contexts, so it can work with its customers to plan and cost climate actions. It helps customers tackle the complex and challenging issue of scope 3 emissions which occur in a company’s value chain and make up the bulk of the F&B industry’s carbon footprint. With this degree of data sharing and transparency, together, ofi says it can plan and cost climate actions for maximum impact. 

Diversity & Inclusion Innovation Award
This category awards an organization or company for creating a work environment that offers equal opportunities for all employees, irrespective of their gender, race, religious background, sexual orientation and physical or mental ability. 

Solidaridad won the award over Cargill for its efforts to promote women in farming through its Feminisation of Agriculture Supply Chains program.

A company spokesperson from Solidaridad tells us why they think the company won the award: “Our pitch is about how we bring more women into farmer supply chains and how companies can invest in women who are partners of these supply chains. We have a framework and organization of supply chains that support female farmers.”

Plant-based Innovation Award 
This award recognizes an organization or company that has developed the best plant-based ingredient or application in terms of sensory and physical properties or application costs. 

ChickP won the award for its functional pure 90% isolate chickpea protein. 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% isolate chickpea protein can be incorporated in so many applications. We showcased some of the non-dairy applications, like cheesecake, the barista milk and cheddar cheese to the judges, and they liked it a lot,” 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 enhancing the sensory experience of food products, such as taste, texture, smell and appearance, without significantly increasing application costs.ChickP won the Plant-based Innovation Award for its functional pure 90% isolate chickpea protein.

Corbion won the award for its Purac Powder Max, an ingredient range that allows manufacturers to make acid-panned and tablet confections with a superior sour taste.

The company beat AAK and Handary for its novel innovation. 

Corbion’s global marketing director tells us: “Our Purac Powder MAX is an acid powder that you can apply in confectionery. This is a new innovation and you can have different particle sizes, which enables it to be used in applications outside of confectionery thanks to the finer particle sizes.”

“We are pleased to be recognized with this award because it confirms that, in developing Purac Powder MAX, we focused on delivering innovation that makes a difference for our customers,” says Willy van Arkel, senior business development manager and product manager at Corbion. 

“Great innovations like this make it possible for consumers to have new and better experiences. This product is a game-changer.”

Purac Powder MAX is a highly stable, non-hygroscopic acid powder that enables confectionery producers to develop products that deliver distinctive sourness in new ways. Due to its unique structural properties, the ingredient is also available in different particle sizes. 

The combination of these attributes gives confectioners options they haven’t had before, such as incorporating acid powder throughout the layers of hard-panned candy to provide faster flavor release and even to deliver sourness at multiple points. And because it is so stable and doesn’t require a fat coating, Purac Powder MAX allows sour confections to maintain their fresh qualities on the shelf longer.

Health Innovation Award
This award focuses on an organization or company that has developed the best ingredient or application in terms of proven contribution to digestive, cognitive, immune or physical health. 

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.

Marketing specialist at MycoTechnology, Emily McCann, tells us: “Our fermentation process is really novel. We use mushroom mycelium, the root of mushrooms versus bacteria or fungi or mold or anything like that and that really just speaks to the cleanness and quality of the product 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 about health and then in addition to that, you say mushroom ingredients and everyone is immediately interested.”

“We have a plethora of mushrooms that are undiscovered that we don’t know anything about, and the way that we’re harvesting them and then using that to make our proteins is fascinating,” McCann notes. 

Food Tech Innovation Award
This award recognizes an organization or company that has developed an innovative technical, processing, manufacturing, packaging/ or waste reduction solution or service for food ingredients or finished products.

MycoTechnology won the award for its FermentIQ PTP, a shiitake fermented pea and rice protein powder.FrieslandCampina Professional took home the award for its Kievit Vana Cappa X01 Foam Booster, which produces nitrogen bubbles at high pressure in powdered form and allows consumers to create a frothy cappuccino coffee instantly.

The company beat Arbiom, Andritz and Nizo for their innovations in the category.

According to Carolien Roseboom, the company’s global marketing lead, the foam booster “makes anything in food and beverages a foam, solving the pain point of thin, small, unstable collecting foam.” 

“With this innovation, there are endless possibilities for creating new structures and textures,” she outlines. “It allows us to create a stable cappuccino foam, topping clouds in beverages and can even make desserts more aerated, for instance.”

Moreover, they add that this foam booster can be used in foodservice but also in the retail space: “Instant and three-in-one coffee mixers can also be improved based on our foam booster technology.”

Finally, Angelique Cachia, senior content and digital director at FiE, adds: “By shining a light on some of the brightest innovations in the food ingredient industry, the Innovation Awards aim to reward the efforts of companies and organizations. It is our hope that they will spur further investment and advances 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