Four prizes for three teams – that’s the impressive record of the Food Technology students from the Technical University of Berlin at this year’s Trophelia Deutschland food innovation com-petition. The competition has been held annually since 2010 by the Research Association of the German Food Industry (FEI).
With their protein-rich tem-peh snack “TempSta”, the students Sakura Yagami, Cigdem Özbilen, Imani Reiser, Carla Großpietsch and Deborah Becker took home first prize. For the Indonesian fermentation product, boiled soybeans were traditionally cultivated with a fungus. In “TempSta”, the soybeans have been substituted by regionally farmed peas in order to avoid long transport distances for the raw materials.
Following the fermentation of the peas with the Rhizopus oligosporus fungus, the pea tempeh is cut into thin slices and hot-air fried. During the process, rapeseed oil is finely atomized and distributed by air circulation, making “TempSta” far less fatty than with conventional frying techniques. This protein-rich snack cracker also boasts numerous vitamins and minerals and is free of gluten and lactose.
The winning team received prize money of EUR 2,000. It will represent Germany with “TempSta” at the European Ecotrophelia competition coming up on 6 and 7 October 2019 in Cologne/Germany. Second place and prize winnings of EUR 1,000 went to Maren Schulz, Amr Aldairi, Omar Marie and Sören Diener for developing the wheat-based dessert “Mi-weiz”. The product is a sweet vegan dish based on wheat grains, buckwheat and sweet lupines eaten as a snack, dessert or breakfast porridge. The idea for the product comes from a Syrian dessert with a consis-tency similar to rice pudding.
Instead of the traditional production means using starch, its pudding-like structure is created using ultrasound treatment and citrus fibres that are waste products from food processing. The ultrasound treatment with the citrus fibres offers a range of benefits: a new texture experience, increased product stability without the addition of stabilizing agents, as well as a higher proportion of fibre. Its special nutritional physiological value is based on the grain and pseudo-cereal varieties it contains, its high plant-based protein and mineral content, and the utilization of apple juice concentrate for sweetening instead of household sugar.
“Dulsey” is an alternative to beef jerky. This savoury, tasty snack is made from red beet, red cabbage, red algae and ultrasound-treated carrot fibres that are dried in a gentle process. The product was developed by Sayuri Kitamura and Miriam Gößmann, who were awarded third prize (endowment EUR 500) along with the special prize for the most innovative product idea (endowment EUR 500).
The meat-like texture of “Dulsey” is created using wet-extruded pea protein. The red algae Palmaria Palmata, also known as “dulse”, improves the condition of the skin and supplies micronutrients, making it a product for the new beauty foods market. A low-fat, high-protein and high-fibre snack, “Dulsey” gives consumers a sense of fullness, yet with a low calorie count. Other benefits include a long shelf life, a high level of convenience, regionally procured ingredients and re-sealable biodegradable packaging.
