Veggie products dominate Ecotrophelia UK final

The increasing popularity of the flexitarian diet, in which people eat a mainly plant based diet but don’t eliminate meat completely, has been highlighted at the Ecotrophelia UK final, which was dominated by veggie and vegan products.

The food innovation student competition gives students a taste of new product development. From idea generation through to the final packaged product, the teams get a hands on experience of what it takes to bring an eco friendly food or drink product to market.

A team from the University of Reading won the gold prize with their veggie sushi style rolls. Yasai Sushi are packed with locally sourced vegetables, including crunchy cauliflower rice. The rolls are low fat, low calorie and one portion provides two of your five a day. Each member of the gold winning team took home a share of £2,000 and an invitation to become an IFST Young Ambassador.

Najrien Juani, from the University of Reading, says, “We learnt a great deal during the competition, including things like costing, marketing and packaging. The key to our success was working as a team as we all had different backgrounds including food science, food technology, consumer science and nutrition.”

The team will go on to compete against 19 other national teams from across Europe for the chance to win up to €6,000 at the Ecotrophelia European final, which will be held at Food Matters Live in London in November.

The Lagom Veg team from Nottingham Trent University secured the silver prize and £1,000 with their vegetable spaghetti snack. Lagom Veg is made from misshaped vegetables, which are spiralised, dried and flavoured with chilli and lemongrass before being compacted into nests.

The bronze prize and £500 was awarded to the London Metropolitan team for their vegan windfall fruit jelly, which is made from wonky fruit.

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