Vegan and coeliac-friendly desserts in Ecotrophelia UK shortlist

Now in its eighth year, the Dragons’ Den-style competition challenges teams of UK students to develop innovative, eco-friendly food and drink products, with a total prize fund of £3,500 on offer.

Despite the challenges presented by COVID-19, the competition, which is organised by the Institute of Food Science & Technology (IFST) and Campden BRI, has been fierce this year, with more teams than ever competing to be finalists. A panel of product development experts carefully assessed the entries before picking the final five. 

IFST operations director Andrew Gardner said: “We are delighted to see another exciting range of eco-innovative products and high-quality portfolios in this year’s UK final. Year-on-year our preliminary judges, who do a fantastic job sifting through all the entries, tell us that the quality has gone up, and this year is no different, with another very impressive field.”

After much deliberation, a panel of new product development experts has selected the five finalist teams’ products.

The five finalists will pitch their products to the dragons on 2 June and the winner will be announced on 10 June 2020, during Campden BRI Week, a major annual event for the food and drink industry.

The ‘dragons’ are senior food experts from across industry including PepsiCo, Coca-Cola, Food Manufacture, Marks & Spencer, Mondelez, Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Unilever, Warburtons,  Nestle, the Institute of Food Science and Technology (IFST) and Campden BRI.

This year's entries included teams from the University of Nottingham, University of Reading, University of West London, University of Liverpool, Leeds University, Cardiff Metropolitan University and Liverpool Hope University.

Bertrand Emond, head of membership and training at Campden BRI, added: “The food industry faces fundamental challenges, including reducing our environmental impact, meeting growing global demand for food, producing more from less as pressure increases on resources, and reformulating and creating new products to meet diet and health requirements.

'Science and innovation'

"Using science and innovation effectively will be critical to survival and competitive advantage. We must support efforts to unlock, nurture and drive innovation in the industry that helps us to meet these challenges.

"Ecotrophelia is a fantastic platform and source of innovation and inspiration for the industry capitalising on the creativity and energy of our brightest and most enterprising food students, supported by the best academic institutions.”

Last year, it was a vegan energy sweet that won the Gold award for its creators, a team from the University of Reading.

The winning team will go on to represent the UK at the European final, which is scheduled to take place during SIAL in Paris, France on 18-19 October 2020.

The UK heat of this Europe-wide competition is organised by UK food and drink research organisation, Campden BRI, in conjunction with the IFST, the independent qualifying body for food professionals in Europe.