We are ready to announce the World Plant-Based Innovation Awards 2023 expert judging panel! This esteemed list will be responsible for evaluating and recognising the most innovative and exceptional plant-based products of the year. Now in its 4th year, these awards celebrate those in the industry pushing the boundaries of what we eat in the plant-based sector. To ensure we celebrate the latest innovations, FoodBev Awards introduced 5 new categories this year dedicated to the particular attributes that assist plant-based product innovation, including health, ingredient and technology innovations.
Make sure to join The Plant Base at Plant Based World Expo North America, Thursday 7 September, 3:15pm at the Learning Garden Theater for a special ceremony where we will announce this years winners! Stay tuned for our shortlist announcement in the next few weeks by subscribing to our free plant based newsletter.
Without further ado, let’s get to know the World Plant-Based Innovation Awards 2023 judging panel:
Florence Dusseaux Vegan Expert, Vegg2Food
Florence Dusseaux is a vegan expert for consulting agency Vegg2Food. She helps the transition towards a plant-based food system, through marketing and communication, strategy, business development and project lead.
Florence has been a vegan since 2015 but passionate about food since the beginning of her entrepreneurial career. In 2021, she was nominated as an influential plant-based food promoter among eight other French influencers for the first plant-based food award in France. Florence is also co-founder of La Pondation de Félicie: a sanctuary for laying hens.
Florence helps companies around the world (Canada, UK, India, South Africa, Caribbeans) to promote their plant-based alternatives from the idea to the final destination: consumer plates. Every week she decrypts food tendencies in the plant-based innovative sector in France and around the world.
Her motto is: Changing the world through plant-based food, one meal at a time.
Marina Carli Innovation Director and Co-founder, Solucionaria
It’s an honour and pleasure once again to be part of the judging panel at the World Plant-Based Innovation Awards 2023. Last year the awards were incredible and this year I hope to be impressed by all the innovation in the plant-based industry.
Working as a consultant for plant-based food and beverages, I have experienced many challenges through my clients. Innovation is not only about the flavour, it has to bring a whole experience (process, ingredients, nutrition, package, purpose and sustainability).
When developing a new product, you need to think beyond what the company desires and delve into what the consumers crave. Dive into the trends, talk to people, take a look at the shelves of the supermarket and check what your competitors are doing. Collect all the information to make sure it is the right path before you start, don’t rush. Knowing what you want is important, but knowing what your consumer wants is the key to a killer product.
As an entrepreneur I am a huge fan of disruptive innovations, such as 3D printing and cultivated meat, but I recognise that “smaller” innovations can also be life-changing, especially when it comes to bringing them to the big masses, making plant-based food accessible for all people. That is my main goal: to work toward more sustainable, feasible and, of course, delicious food.
Francesco Benazzi Senior Vice President for Dairy Alternatives, Growthwell Foods Singapore
A C-Level professional with almost 20 years of experience in Asia, Francesco Benazzi stepped into the plant-based world in 2015 in Hong Kong, where he led the launch of the OraSi brand in 12 countries around Asia. Currently he is senior vice president for dairy alternatives at Growthwell foods, a Temasek invested company.
Lactose intolerant, a coffee lover and a plant-based food enthusiast, he is married and the father of two beautiful kids.
Melissa Bradshaw Editor of The Plant Base, FoodBev Media
In my role, I often find myself fascinated by how the plant-based industry is evolving and adapting in line with wider food and beverage trends. To grab my attention, businesses must offer something truly unique and ahead of the game, whether that be a juicier-than-ever plant-based meat cut made with innovative new ingredients, or a branding strategy that encourages even the most carnivorous of consumers to give vegan food a try.
I will be looking for:
Mission: What key challenges is your business aiming to solve? For me, stand-out entrants will have considered what is important to them, where the real gaps in the market are and how they can make a real, lasting positive impact.
Eating experience: I’ll be looking for sensory qualities – taste, texture, mouthfeel – that achieve both what the consumer wants and what the developer is aiming to deliver, whether that be mimicking a much-loved non-vegan product or delivering an entirely new, unique taste experience.
Sustainability: For many plant-based consumers, having a positive impact on the planet is a huge driving factor behind their dietary choices. It’s important that companies are considering their environmental impact, and I’ll be looking out for evidence of this during the judging process.
Nutrition: Nutritional health is another critical consideration in many plant-based consumers’ dietary choices. I will be on the lookout for products able to offer a balanced nutritional profile alongside meeting high standards of quality and taste.
Personality: The way that businesses are communicating with their target demographic has become smarter. I’ll be looking for witty, stand-out branding and a tone of voice that really draws the consumer in.
Bao Zhan Chief Scientist, Vesta Food Lab
Bao Zhan is the chief scientist of Vesta Food Lab, a meat analogue manufacturer in China. He has worked for BASF in Germany and Singapore on nanotechnology and macromolecules. He is a food writer and a science advisor for the food documentary “Once Upon a Bite”. He was one of the 15 named inspectors for the Meituan Black Pearl Restaurant Guide 2020 in China. He was also on the judging panel of World Plant-Based Awards 2022.
The kind of innovation I am looking for:
A product concept that is truly creative
Innovations bringing huge potential to a new food raw material
The first industrial use of new technologies in the food industry
The first industrial use of a new packaging material in the food industry
A small but ingenious twist on an old technology that boosts the efficiency
Tawanda Muzhingi Director of International Programmes, Plant Based Foods Institute
Tawanda Muzhingi is a food scientist, nutritionist and a development expert working with Plant Based Foods Association (PBFA)’s Plant Based Foods Institute (PBFI) as the director of international programmes.
Tawanda joined PBFI from Research Triangle Institute (RTI) International’s Innovation Advisors Group when he was an Innovation Advisor in the Food and Agriculture practice. Prior to RTI, Tawanda worked at the CGIAR with the International Potato Center (CIP) and the Roots, Tubers and Bananas Program of the CGIAR as a Senior Scientist and Flagship Leader based in Nairobi, Kenya.
At CIP and RTB, Tawanda led the market systems development, nutrition sensitive agriculture and commercialisation of roots, tubers and banana crops. Before joining CIP, Tawanda worked for ten years at the Jean Mayer United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Research Services (ARS) Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging, in the Carotenoids and Health Laboratory at Tufts University, Boston, MA, USA.
Tawanda obtained his PhD Biochemical and Molecular Nutrition and M.S. Food Policy and Applied Nutrition from the Gerald J and Dorothy R Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University in Boston, MA, USA, and Bachelor of Science degree in Nutrition from the University of Zimbabwe. Tawanda is also adjunct professor in the Department of Food, Bioprocessing & Nutrition Sciences at North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC.
Tawanda is co-founder and chief innovation officer at a startup, YESBreadCo, based in Bloomington, IN.
Marisa Heath Chief Executive, Plant-based Food Alliance
Marisa Heath is chief executive of the Plant-based Food Alliance UK and has worked for over 18 years as a policy adviser and campaigner on sustainable and ethical food systems, climate change and animal welfare. She has run campaigns on behalf of a number of sector groups, relating to food production, food waste, nutrition, climate change, biodiversity and animal welfare standards. Marisa is also a founding member of the International Plant-based Food Working Group including the US, Canada, China, India, Mexico and the EU. Marisa’s particular interest is in novel foods and innovation.
The Plant-based Food Alliance represents members from industry, NGOs and farming including Alpro, Oatly, Upfield, Sheese, Pro Veg and Quorn. It advocates for more policy support for growth of the sector and involves keeping government informed on key trends, opportunities in investment and export, regulatory impacts and the alignment to environmental objectives.
Stephanie Lind Chief Development Officer, Elohi Strategic Advisors
Foodservice continues to be a viable and reliable method for launching plant-based products. Consumers are willing to try new products and to pay a premium for something new and special in a foodservice environment. Especially for smaller companies, foodservice can also be a great way to manage resources, capacity and cash flow.
Here’s what I’ll look for as I judge products:
1.Products that fill an operators’ three needs.
More people: Will your product drive traffic? Will people go to a restaurant looking for that item? This can be difficult for manufacturers to control.
Lower costs: Can you reduce labor and food costs? Is your solution a time-saver in the kitchen, or easier for back of house to manage? Does it increase shelf life, and reduce food waste?
Higher checks: If your product means the vegan, the vegetarian, or the person who’s watching her cholesterol – the veto vote — can find something on the menu, then you’re helping people choose that restaurant rather than another one.
2. Products that taste good in foodservice applications.
How versatile is your product? Will it work as a standalone? Will it work as an ingredient? Can operators use it across day-parts? Does it taste good and can it work across an operator’s whole menu?
3. Products with solid supply chains.
What can you do in foodservice, and when can you do it? Do you have more than one production location? Do you own your manufacturing, or is it co-man? What certifications do you have?
Products should have a strong supply chain – manufacturing, ingredients, packaging, logistics. And extend that all the way to having a clean message that resonates with foodservice. The best product is one operators and distributors can rely on receiving and that their sellers or waitstaff can sell.
Stay up to date with our awards by visiting the dedicated FoodBev Awards website
The shortlist of the World Plant-based Innovation Awards 2023 will be announced shortly.
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