Video: World Food Innovation Awards – best artisan food

The best artisan food category at this year’s World Food Innovation Awards highlighted the very best of craft producers.

V&H showcased its range of Tsuki Mochi chocolate truffles, made using Belgian chocolate and fresh British dairy to produce a uniquely decadent chocolate ganache that is then wrapped in soft, delicious mochi and hand-rolled into balls before being finished with a dusting of cocoa powder. The line brings mochi – a traditional Japanese confectionery made by steaming and pounding sticky rice flour – to the UK market.

US company Sweetopia presented its gluten-free dessert options under the tagline “get your sweet on”. The range offers a superior taste to other gluten-free offerings and its craft credentials are heightened by the use of “authentic, high-quality, natural ingredients”, the company said.

There were also several condiment and ingredient innovations in this category.

The Cool Chile Co nominated its range of ambient Mexican cooking sauces. There are three flavours: Mexico Adobo marinade, which is a tangy addition to lamb; Mexican Mojo de Ajo, a garlic and chilli oil that can be used as a sauce, marinade or dressing; and finally Mexican buffalo sauce, which is a spicy sauce for chicken and vegetarian dishes.

Designed for the busy but discerning cook, the new sauces bring traditional Mexican flavours into British homes.

Likewise, Milanovic-Knowles promised to transport consumers “into the heart of the Serbian countryside” with its home-style roasted red pepper mezze-style spread and dip. Red peppers are fire-roasted, hand-peeled and mixed with garlic before being slow-cooked with a little oil – all in keeping with a secret recipe passed down from the founder’s grandmother.

The product highlights the fact that – aside from using high-quality ingredients and cooking products authentically in small batches – the single biggest hallmark of artisan food is the story behind and the clarity of its provenance.

Inner Mongolia Yili Industrial Group’s Yili Gu Li Duo Oat Milk is made from pure milk and oat grain selected from Australia, which means that consumers can enjoy the sensation of chewing oat grain while drinking their milk! The popularity of the product, which combines the nutritional benefits of both oats and milk with unique processing methodology, boomed in China following its launch.

Mara Seaweed entered the awards with its Dulse Shaker Tin, a new format for delivering purple Dulse seaweed flakes for a sumptuous and smoky depth of flavour in salmon, beef, lamb, venison and burger dishes. Used as a seasoning to transform everyday cooking, Dulse is naturally low in sodium but tastes salty and has plenty of umami flavour.

It has been a part of the traditional Scots and Irish diet for centuries and, as with all Mara seaweed, is locally sourced and hand-harvested sustainably in the wild.

And if all of that was too much, Rated M Wine Infused Foods has something to wash it down.

The company’s Wine-Infused Cocktail Salts adds a glam garnish of flavour to cocktails, pre-moistened so that they can coat the rim of the glass when you dip it in. The salt originates from the US’ Pacific Northwest.