Speculation over which of the 13 shortlisted ingredients would take home silverware in this year's Food Ingredients Excellence Awards ended as National Starch Food Innovation was awarded the competition's main prize.The honour was presented at a glittering awards ceremony at Food Ingredients (Fi) Europe, which opened yesterday in Frankfurt, Germany. Held biennially in a chosen European city, Fi Europe is the premiere meeting place for the global ingredients industry. In front of an audience of the food ingredients' industry players and decision makers, former MTV presenter Kristiane Backer presented awards for best innovation in Dairy, Savoury/Meat, Confectionary, Bakery, and Snacks/On the Go.National Starch Food Innovation received the coveted Fi Excellence Innovation of the Year Award for its ingredient N-Dulge FR – a co-texturiser which enables the amount of butter, margarine or shortening used in cake recipes to be reduced by 75%. Explaining the panel's decision, Henry Dixon, Chair of Judges, said: In addition to the overall 'Innovation of the Year' accolade, National Starch fended off competition from J Rettenmaier & Sohne to win Bakery Innovation of the Year.Chr Hansen also celebrated a double coup, winning Savoury/Meat Innovation of the Year for Bactoferm Rubis, and Dairy Innovation of the Year for CHY-MAX M. Bactoferm Rubis solves the problem of oxidisation in packaged meats naturally thanks to its ability to consume oxygen, while CHY-MAX M delivers reduced costs-in-use, better process control, improved flavour and increased shelf life in dairy applications.Scooping Confectionery Innovation of the Year was Fuji Oil Europe's Redusat, which contains half the amount of saturates as normal saturated fats, but maintains the same structure.Lastly, the Snacks/On-The-Go category was won by Lyckeby Culinar AB, with Culinax, the flavouring system for 'difficult to flavour' products. The next Fi Europe Excellence Awards will be presented at Fi Europe 2011, which will run from November 19 – December 1, 2011 in Paris, France.
