National Starch won the overall Innovation of the Year Award and Bakery Innovation with its N-Dulge FR this year. Chr Hansen, too, had two reasons to celebrate: its Bactoferm Rubis won the Savoury/Meat category, and Chy-Max-M won Dairy.
For Confectionery, Fuji Oil Europe walked away with the award for its Redusat; and Lyckeby Culinary won the Snacks/On-the-Go category for Culinax, a flavouring system for hard-to-flavour products.
Jorgen Kokke, VP and general manager at National Starch for Europe, Middle East and Africa, said new interested was immediately sparked by winning the awards. “There has been profound interest in the bakery area,” he told FoodNavigator.com.
“It is not only a tremendous compliment to the team that worked on the project.. but it is also a big shot in the arm in marketing and sales leads. It energises the sales teams. The benefits are long term”.
N-Dulge FR, a starch-based co-texturiser for saving costs, improving shelf-life and reducing fat in cakes, was developed over an 18-month period. It can allow for the butter, margarine or shortening in cake recipes to be reduced by 75 per cent.
Alison Knight, European technical development manager for bakery at National Starch, said fat reduction and health was the major driver. The development process involved intensive screening of products that could be used to lower fat for their effect on structure and the size of air bubbles. This involved confocal laser scanning microscopy, which shows a cake’s structure in 3D.
Generally speaking, a reduction in saturated fat meant bigger air bubbles, and this affects the texture and makes cakes more crumbly. With the starches the team used, however, the bubbles were smaller and the gaps narrower.
“They are closer to a full fat product,” said Knight.
Chr Hansen
As for the other double-winner, Chr Hansen, John Jensen, marketing director for meat cultures, said: “Innovation is the key word of our strategy, so we are very proud that Bactoferm Rubis has received this prestigious accolade at an important event like this,” comments Chr. Hansen’s
Jensen’s comments were echoed by his counterpart for enzymes and tests, David Stroo, who said: “It’s very encouraging for Chr. Hansen to receive this recognition of CHY-MAX M’s highly innovative qualities.”