Every year, Cargill and the European Federation of Food Science and Technology (EFFoST) organize the ‘Student of the Year Award’ to support and encourage the next generation of food scientists.

Didier Bonnet, director of global food research at Cargill presented the awards to the students and was impressed by the quality of the research: “It was quite challenging to select the winners taking into account the outstanding scientific quality of the applications and their huge diversity. Our jury decided after assessing both the novelty of the approach and their potential to contribute to a future food innovation”.

In the category for MSc students, the 25 year old HuiQi Yeo has won the first prize for her research on the effects of sugar reduction on aroma release in carbonated soft drinks. HuiQi Yeo, originally from Singapore, did her research at the Nottingham University (UK) where she studied food science. Although sugar reduction in beverages is a major trend, she thinks that “there are many technical and sensory challenges to overcome. Thus, it is important to understand aroma-matrix interactions, especially under in-vivo conditions for the formulation of successful products without compromising flavour delivery to meet consumer expectations”. 

In the category for PhD students, the honor of student of the year went to the 32 year old Jannika Dombrowski from Germany. Cargill and EFFoST were impressed by her PhD research on structural characteristics which determine the surface and foaming properties of β-lactoglobulin. Jannika did her PhD research at the Technical University of Munich (Germany). When asked ‘why this subject’, Jannika says that “foams are an integral part of our everyday life, even though we are not always aware of it. From food products like bread or ice cream, to cosmetic products like shampoo or shaving cream and cleaning agents. My submitted research is about the interfacial and foaming properties of milk proteins and aims to gain a deeper understanding of how proteins behave at the air / water interface and in what way this is reflected in the resulting, macroscopic foam structures”.

The final ranking for the EFFoST Student of the Year Award:

MSc

1. HuiQi Yeo - Effect of sugar reduction on aroma release in carbonated soft drinks. (University of Nottingham)
2. Daniel Munk - Replacement of saturated fats in ice cream with oleogels. (University of Copenhagen)
3. Valerio Vallone - Use of capped-nanoclays as controlled release systems for food applications (University of Florence)

PhD

1. Jannika Dombrowski - Evaluation of structural characteristics determining the surface and foaming properties of β-lactoglobulin in various molecular states. (Technical University of Munich)
2. Saari Hisfazilah - Design of colloidal starch particles to stabilize pickering emulsions and investigation of their effects on the emulsions. (Lund University)
3. Volker Lammers - High-pressure foaming properties of carbon dioxide saturated emulsions. (ETH Zurich)