KENYA– Coca-Cola Beverages Africa’s Minute Maid Fruity Boost with Milk and Nutrients, Bio Food Products’ Bio Yoghurt Fruit on the Bottom and Bidco Africa’s Noodies Ugali Noodles with Sukuma Wiki emerged the best in the novel way of ingredient application at the just concluded Africa Food Industry Excellence Awards, taking positions one, two and three respectively.
In a spectacular ceremony of its kind, the companies showed their innovative credentials by scooping the top three honors at the ceremony ahead of several companies that had entered products across a number of categories, from dairy, milled, beverages and more.
Incidentally, Minute Maid Fruity Boost also won the soft beverages product of the year award for the unique way it blends fruit juice, milk powder, vitamins and minerals; a first in the region.
Minute Maid Fruity Boost is a tasty blend of milk and real juice that provides energy and nutritional benefit. It contains vitamins B3, B6 and E; calcium and zinc nutrients. In addition, it has fat-free milk that provides consumers with much needed protein nutrition.
According to CCBA, the product is designed to meet instant energy needs and nutrition at any time of the day.
Bio Yoghurt Fruit on the Bottom, which also came first in the Dairy Product of the Year category, is the first dairy product in the region to incorporate real fruit filled separately from the yoghurt white mass, allowing the consumer the indulgence to mix for themselves at the point of consumption.
Coming in at position three, Bidco’s Noodies Ugali Noodles with Sukuma Wiki stood out for the utilization of a common staple sukuma wiki (kales), in addition to the usage of maize flour in addition to the common wheat flour.
This category, which was introduced at this year’s Awards ceremony, provide a platform to celebrate companies that have uniquely utilized ingredients in their new product applications, taking into account the ingredient’s nutrition and taste profile.
The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Co-operatives sent its Acting Director of Agro-processing, Mr. Simon Atebe, who was the Chief Guest, and the Acting Managing Director of the Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS), Mr. Benard Nguyo, also made an appearance as one of the main guests.
Other notable attendees included the Barclays Kenya CEO, Mr. Jeremy Awori, several Managing Directors and CEOs from the industry, government agencies, supplier companies and other stakeholders.
About the Awards
The Africa Food Industry Excellence Awards are Africa’s most prestigious food industry awards,
The Awards celebrate some of the most outstanding people, new products and company initiatives in the food, beverage and milling industry in Africa.
Now in its second year, the Awards ceremony attracted the who-is-who in the food manufacturing, retail and foodservice industry in the region, with over 400 people attending the event, which took place from 14.00 hours till late.
This year’s Awards had a larger and expanded category profile, with new categories (new plants, new products, sustainability and training initiatives) added on top of the individual award categories from the 2017 edition of the Awards.
Countries eligible for the Awards were also expanded beyond Kenya, to include companies from Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, Malawi and Ethiopia.
The next edition of the Africa Food Industry Excellence Awards ceremony will be held on July 12, 2019 in Kigali, Rwanda.
Individuals and companies are encouraged to enter their applications for next year’s Awards process, which open on November 1, 2018.
More information about the Awards can be found on www.awards.foodbusinessafrica.com
