Food ingredients Excellence Awards Announced at Fi Europe 2009

FRANKFURT, November 19 - Speculation over which of the 13 shortlisted ingredients would take home
silverware in this year's Food ingredients Excellence Awards ended last night
as National Starch Food Innovation was awarded the competition's main prize.

The honour was presented at a glittering awards ceremony at Food
ingredients (Fi) Europe, which opened yesterday in Frankfurt, Germany. Held
biennially in a chosen European city, Fi Europe is the premiere meeting place
for the global ingredients industry. In front of an audience of the food
ingredients' industry players and decision makers, former MTV presenter
Kristiane Backer presented awards for best innovation in Dairy, Savoury/Meat,
Confectionary, Bakery, and Snacks/On the Go.

National Starch Food Innovation received the coveted Fi Excellence
Innovation of the Year Award for its ingredient N-Dulge FR - a co-texturiser
which enables the amount of butter, margarine or shortening used in cake
recipes to be reduced by 75%. Explaining the panel's decision, Henry Dixon,
Chair of Judges, said: "The judges quickly identified two front runners for
this award. In our final analysis we looked for an ingredient that not only
benefitted the manufacturer and retailer but that also held out the promise
of helping consumers overcome a real and significant challenge."

Allison Knight, technical service manager, Northern Europe with National
Starch Food Innovation said, "We are thrilled. N-Dulge FR is a product that
we've really believed in and to gain this recognition from the industry is
truly amazing."

In addition to the overall 'Innovation of the Year' accolade, National
Starch fended off competition from J Rettenmaier & Sohne to win Bakery
Innovation of the Year.

Chr Hansen also celebrated a double coup, winning Savoury/Meat Innovation
of the Year for Bactoferm Rubis, and Dairy Innovation of the Year for CHY-MAX
M. Bactoferm Rubis solves the problem of oxidisation in packaged meats
naturally thanks to its ability to consume oxygen, while CHY-MAX M delivers
reduced costs-in-use, better process control, improved flavour and increased
shelf life in dairy applications.

Scooping Confectionery Innovation of the Year was Fuji Oil Europe's
Redusat, which contains half the amount of saturates as normal saturated
fats, but maintains the same structure.

Lastly, the Snacks/On-The-Go category was won by Lyckeby Culinar AB, with
Culinax, the flavouring system for 'difficult to flavour' products.

Event director Greg Cherry added that this year's judging committee had
faced the toughest selection process to date, after being inundated by a
record number of entries.

In fact, the success of the awards has prompted the organisers to
introduce two new categories for 2010. "In the context of the 2010 UN
International Year of Biodiversity, next year we will be launching the
Ethical BioTrade award for Biodiversity, a joint venture with the Union for
Ethical BioTrade," said Cherry. "We will also be launching the search for the
young scientist of the year, together with the lifetime achievement award run
in conjunction with IUFoST (the international Union of Food Science and
Technology) and we hope that many of you will take part in some or all of
these in the coming year."

The next Fi Europe Excellence Awards will be presented at Fi Europe 2011,
which will run from November 19 - December 1, 2011 in Paris, France.

Ms. Leonie Reindertsen, Food ingredients Europe 2009, +31-346-559-444, Fax: +31-346-573-811, leonie.reindertsen at ubm.com, Website: www.ingredientsnetwork.com