Video: IFE World Food Innovation Awards – best new food concept

The World Food Innovation Awards once again hosted a wonderful array of products in the best new food concept category – all revolutionising their respective segments of the food and beverage industry, from snacking to ingredients and convenience food.

Offering a truly groundbreaking option that challenges long-established culinary traditions in the UK, Crobar by Gathr stands out with its natural dairy- and gluten-free energy bar that contains cricket flour. As an alternative protein source, crickets emit 80 times less CO² than cattle, use ten times less space and a lot less water, while containing as high a protein content as beef but lower in fat.

Cereal Lovers also taps into the ever-expanding healthy, on-the-go food trend of recent years with its Crunchtime Nuggets. This convenient snacking option uniquely bakes all of its ingredients together, making digestion easier and healthier, offered in resealable pouches that double as a mobile cereal bowl and can be eaten dry or with milk or juice.

On the dairy front, V&H’s Little Moons brings a new concept to the ice cream category with scoops of gelato wrapped in mochi, which is made by steaming and pounding sticky rice flour until it gains a soft and delicate elasticity. Mochi not only brings taste and texture to gelato, but also allows the ice cream – free from gluten and artificial colours, flavours and additives – to be eaten by hand.

Mexicana Hot Shots from Norseland, on the other hand, snackifies another dairy favourite, cheese, by offering spicy cubes of cheddar wrapped up in a ready-to-go packaging. Flavoured to perfection with a blend of bell peppers and hot chilli spices, each cube promises the same punch as the last with a unique spicy flavouring consistent throughout the cheese.

Simply Saffron of Ethical Blends is made by using a unique low energy process that ensures the actual spice is encapsulated in an additive- and preservative-free, ethically sourced saffron paste, offering a completely new way of consuming saffron. The ingredient is available in jars and single-dose Easysnap sachets, which makes it possible to add the saffron in seconds to recipes in a pre-measured portion, removing the risk of overdosing.

Another innovation in the ingredients shelf is FortiSalt, which provides a full, rich and salty gourmet flavour but with 50% less sodium than regular salt. Furthermore, FortiSalt combines nutritionally balanced essential minerals and trace element salts, such as magnesium and potassium that help our bodies to better balance and utilise sodium.

For those looking for a visually enticing pasta experience, Le Violetta from Surgital offers a revolutionary ravioli with a purple filling, which is made mainly from the small, sweet and soft-textured violette potatoes, rich in antioxidants and anthocyanins that give them their vivid colour.

Making the world kitchen classics accessible for all, the Versatile Mini Koftes from Snowbird Foods offers a convenient solution for fans of authetnic Middle Eastern flavours, with a delicate heat that has found favour with older children as well as adults, while Foodie Fusions’ Green Gram Pudding brings a traditional Indian taste to the world stage. A traditional recipe with the delightful aroma of clarified butter, the pudding serves as the ideal end to any meal.

Finalists and winners in the 20 categories of the World Food Innovation Awards 2016 were announced at a special ceremony at Hotelympia at ExCel in London on 1 March. To see the full list of winners and finalists, click here.