Campus Venlo students win preliminary round European food innovation competition
Friday 19 May, three teams of the Health Food Innovation Management master’s programme (UM’s Campus Venlo) took first, second and third place in the preliminary round of the Ecothophelia competition: a Europe-wide competition between student teams of both universities and colleges.
In the semi-finals the three teams from HFIM will compete against each other to see who goes to London to represent The Netherlands (and Maastricht University) in the finals. There, teams from all over Europe will compete for first place.
Ecotrophelia
Ecotrophelia has the ambition to promote entrepreneurship and competitiveness within the European food industry by implementing a training network of excellence in food innovation and organizing National and European food innovation competitions "The Student Food Innovation Awards" a real eye-opener for the food industry. Ecotrophelia achieves the goal of bringing together students, teachers, researchers and professionals of the food sector in a network to think about tomorrow’s eco-innovative food products.

The winners
First place: V-Egg
V-egg is made from Aquafaba. The word aquafaba is the common name for the cooking liquid of beans and other legumes like chickpeas. Aquafaba can be used to replace egg whites in a wide variety of products. This means that V-egg is a good alternative for eggs and thus reducing the bio-industry.
Team members:
- Celia Deleersnijder
- Addini Pascaramadhani
- Thanyathorn Wongnitchakul

Second place: PopPeas
PopPeas is a guilt-free snack that is made from yellow peas, mushrooms and basel. The yellow pea provides protein, the mushrooms are UV-enriched to multiply the amount of vitamins nine times and the dried basel is good for its calcium. All these ingredients are mixed, grounded and fed through an extruding machine to produce a Cheetos-like snack, but a lot healthier.
Team members:
- Elke Donkers
- Tom Kerstens
- Lorraine Arts
- Rob Wijers

Third place: C-real
This breakfast cereal can be consumed without the traditional adding of milk. This is due to the addition of Carob, which is sweet, instead of chocolate. Carob is high in calcium making the cereal a sustainable alternative for a lot of chocolate-heavy cereals.
Team members:
- Sandra Jenniskens
- Tessa Naus
- Laura Reitsma
- Britt Otten

Pictures
A small impression of the winners and their products
About HFIM
The Science in Health Food Innovation Management master's programme is a unique programme, the only one of its kind in the world. The multidisciplinary curriculum is specifically tailored to the professional demands of employers in the food industry. You’ll take courses on topics such as biomedical sciences and nutrition, food regulation, consumer behaviour, entrepreneurship, business and marketing.
By combining elements from business and management with food innovation and health science, we’re able to provide you with an education that will give you the best possible preparation for your future career.
The programme spans the entire process of food innovation, with a focus on improving consumer health and preventing disease.

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