Fi Europe announces 2025 Innovation Award winners
Fi Europe has revealed the winners of its 2025 Innovation Awards, recognising six companies for breakthrough developments in food ingredients and technology at the exhibition’s 30th anniversary celebration in Paris. The awards, announced on 3 December, highlight innovations spanning dairy alternatives, manufacturing efficiency, digital platforms, probiotics, plant-based proteins, and sustainability initiatives.
The competition attracted a record 177 entries, evaluated by an eleven-member international judging panel representing organisations including Campden BRI, EAS Strategies, and Giract. Prof. Colin Dennis of the International Food Information Service, who chaired the awards, noted the exceptional quality of this year’s submissions. “The panel was extremely impressed by the quality and diversity of innovation seen in this year’s submissions,” he stated. “It’s wonderful to see so many businesses ploughing so much time and effort into making the changes today that the industry needs tomorrow.”
The 2025 Innovation Award winners
- Dairy Alternative Innovation Award: Time Travelling Milkman (Oleocream™)
- Food Manufacturing Innovation Award: Tetra Pak® (Air Jet Cleaning System for powder handling equipment)
- Future Foodtech Innovation Award: AKA Food (Intelligence Platform for Application Development)
- Health Innovation Award: ADM (Lactobacillus Gasseri CP2305 for mental health)
- Plant-based Innovation Award: ICL Food Specialties (ROVITARIS® SprouTx™: A textured soy protein)
- Sustainability Innovation Award: ofi (Driving industry impact through Cocoa Compass)
Innovations addressing key sector challenges
Time Travelling Milkman’s Oleocream™ secured the Dairy Alternative Innovation Award, whilst Tetra Pak® claimed the Food Manufacturing Innovation Award for its Air Jet Cleaning System designed for powder handling equipment. The system addresses critical hygiene and efficiency challenges in food manufacturing operations.
AKA Food won the Future Foodtech Innovation Award for its Intelligence Platform for Application Development, a digital solution aimed at accelerating product formulation processes. In the Health Innovation category, ADM received recognition for Lactobacillus Gasseri CP2305, a probiotic strain targeting mental health applications—an emerging area of gut-brain axis research.
ICL Food Specialties took the Plant-based Innovation Award for ROVITARIS® SprouTx™, a textured soy protein that addresses functionality challenges in meat alternative formulations. The Sustainability Innovation Award went to ofi for its Cocoa Compass programme, which tracks and reports environmental and social impact across cocoa supply chains.
Record participation reflects sector innovation intensity
The increased entry numbers were attributed to Fi Europe’s new streamlined submission process, designed to reduce administrative barriers for applicants. The six award categories were strategically structured to reflect current priorities in the food and beverage sector, including health, sustainability, and alternative protein development.
Yannick Verry, Brand Director at Fi Europe, emphasised the significance of the awards within the exhibition’s 30-year history. “The awards provide a great opportunity to look both backwards and forwards: to the past achievements that have brought us where we are today and to the policies, products and people the sector will call on tomorrow for inspiration,” he commented. “When the first meat alternatives appeared on the show floor, no one could have predicted they would develop into the global plant-based phenomenon – but Fi Europe was among the first places to spotlight them.”
Evaluation criteria and judging process
The Innovation Awards recognise ingredients and technologies developed within the previous two years, focusing on commercial viability alongside technical merit. The judging criteria assessed factors including scientific innovation, market potential, sustainability credentials, and practical application within food and beverage manufacturing.
Since its launch in Utrecht in 1986, Fi Europe has established itself as a central platform for food ingredient innovation, with over 1,000,000 attendees across its exhibitions. The event brings together ingredient suppliers, food manufacturers, researchers, and technology providers to facilitate collaboration and commercial partnerships.
The 2025 edition marked three decades of the exhibition, which has tracked the development of numerous ingredient categories from niche concepts to mainstream applications. Prof. Dennis noted that the judging panel was tasked with distinguishing sustained innovation from temporary market trends, applying objective evaluation criteria across all submissions.
The annual awards programme continues to serve as a barometer for emerging trends in food science and technology, with previous winners often influencing ingredient adoption patterns across the European food industry.
