Yili Group Wins 17 World Food Innovation Awards

Mar 24, 2023

LONDON, -- The winners of the World Food Innovation Awards 2023 were announced at the International Food and Drink Event (IFE) on March 20 in the UK. With outstanding performance in innovation, Yili Group became the biggest winner with the most awards. Together with its subsidiary Ausnutria Dairy, the company took one top prize, notably ranked among finalists for 13 awards and received commendation for three more awards.

After a rigorous review by the judges, Yili's Satine No Printing No Ink Environmental-friendly Edition was named the winner of the Packaging Design award. Integrating green and low-carbon concepts, the individual cartons are designed in pure white without traditional ink printing and the product information is laser-printed. The cartons are composed of FSC-certified packaging materials and the caps are made of plant-based materials.

Satine Active Lactoferrin Organic Pure Milk, which was commended for the Artisan Product award, applies innovative and advanced technology to maintain the natural activity of lactoferrin, thus allowing the product to help boost the human body's immune system. It is notably the first room temperature active lactoferrin organic pure milk product in the dairy market. Meanwhile, Yili Cute Star Lactoferrin Pure Milk – the world's first room temperature active lactoferrin milk product that provides nutritional care for children's healthy growth – was also named a finalist for three awards, i.e. the Technology Innovation award, the Children's/Baby Product award, and the Artisan Product award. Yili's Xujinhuan Cheese Flavored Ice cream was also nominated for the Chilled/Frozen Product award. The product is China's first low GI ice cream product certified by the Global Green Union.

Kabrita YingJia Yingxin Goat Milk Formula was a finalist for the Dairy Product award as it innovatively combines phytosterol esters, folic acid, taurine and zinc to help protect the cardiovascular and cerebral vascular health of middle-aged and elderly people. Meanwhile, AMBPOMIAL Youqier, a unique combination of a sparkling drink and a yogurt product, was also named a finalist for the Dairy Product and Food Innovation awards.

Furthermore, Shuhua Sugar Control Lactose-free Milk was also named a finalist for the Technology Innovation and Dairy Product awards, while Cute Star Natural DHA Pure Milk was a finalist for the Artisan Product award and was commended for the Dairy Product award, and Changyi 100% Lactic Acid Bacteria Drink was a finalist for the Drink Innovation award.

Source : Newswire.ca

Video: Why Your Food Future Could be Trapped in a Seed Morgue

In a world of PowerPoint overload, Rex Bernardo stands out. No bullet points. No charts. No jargon. Just stories and photographs. At this year’s National Association for Plant Breeding conference on the Big Island of Hawaii, he stood before a room of peers — all experts in the science of seeds — and did something radical: he showed them images. He told them stories. And he asked them to remember not what they saw, but how they felt.

Bernardo, recipient of the 2025 Lifetime Achievement Award, has spent his career searching for the genetic treasures tucked inside what plant breeders call exotic germplasm — ancient, often wild genetic lines that hold secrets to resilience, taste, and traits we've forgotten to value.

But Bernardo didn’t always think this way.

“I worked in private industry for nearly a decade,” he recalls. “I remember one breeder saying, ‘We’re making new hybrids, but they’re basically the same genetics.’ That stuck with me. Where is the new diversity going to come from?”

For Bernardo, part of the answer lies in the world’s gene banks — vast vaults of seed samples collected from every corner of the globe. Yet, he says, many of these vaults have quietly become “seed morgues.” “Something goes in, but it never comes out,” he explains. “We need to start treating these collections like living investments, not museums of dead potential.”

That potential — and the barriers to unlocking it — are deeply personal for Bernardo. He’s wrestled with international policies that prevent access to valuable lines (like North Korean corn) and with the slow, painstaking science of transferring useful traits from wild relatives into elite lines that farmers can actually grow. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t. But he’s convinced that success starts not in the lab, but in the way we communicate.

“The fact sheet model isn’t cutting it anymore,” he says. “We hand out a paper about a new variety and think that’s enough. But stories? Plants you can see and touch? That’s what stays with people.”

Bernardo practices what he preaches. At the University of Minnesota, he helped launch a student-led breeding program that’s working to adapt leafy African vegetables for the Twin Cities’ African diaspora. The goal? Culturally relevant crops that mature in Minnesota’s shorter growing season — and can be regrown year after year.

“That’s real impact,” he says. “Helping people grow food that’s meaningful to them, not just what's commercially viable.”

He’s also brewed plant breeding into something more relatable — literally. Coffee and beer have become unexpected tools in his mission to make science accessible. His undergraduate course on coffee, for instance, connects the dots between genetics, geography, and culture. “Everyone drinks coffee,” he says. “It’s a conversation starter. It’s a gateway into plant science.”