IFU Awards

2024 IFU Innovation Award - San Miguel Global

Gianina Cauhape (second from left in the picture) accepted the award on behalf of San Miguel.

During the Juice Summit 2024 held in October in Antwerp, San Miguel Global based in Tucumán, Argentina was awarded the prestigious IFU Innovation Award 2024. Their pioneering product, Lemon PectoFiber, stood out for its exceptional contributions to the fruit and vegetable juice industry, setting a new standard in sustainable innovation, versatility, and health benefits.

Lemon PectoFiber is a transformative ingredient made from repurposed lemon by-products, including peels and pulp. Through advanced processing, San Miguel has developed a multifunctional fiber that embodies sustainability and innovation, catering to today’s growing demand for eco-friendly, health-forward solutions.

2023 IFU Significant Contribution Award - John Collins

In 2023, we expressed our heartfelt appreciation to John Collins (right in the picture), the former IFU Executive Director, for his significant contributions to the fruit juice industry. During his tenure as IFU's Executive Director from 2015 until his retirement in 2023, John played a pivotal role in managing our organization, coordinating activities and commissions, expanding our membership base, and representing the IFU within the industry, governments, public agencies, media, and the public.

We proudly honoured John Collins for his remarkable contributions with the IFU Significant Contribution Award 2023.

2023 IFU Innovation Award - JBT

José Lorente (centre left in the picture) and José Biot (centre right in the picture)

During the Juice Summit 2023 held in October in Antwerp, JBT was honoured with the prestigious IFU Innovation Award 2023. JBT consistently demonstrated its commitment to enhancing the environmental performance of fruit juice processors by offering innovative solutions to improve yields, reduce waste, propose upcycling solutions for by-products, and introduce the concept of the circular economy.

Furthermore, JBT's willingness to share its acquired knowledge has been invaluable to the industry. This award celebrated and acknowledged JBT's exceptional contributions to the fruit juice sector.

2020 IFU Commissioner of the year - Dr Edgar Zimmer

Dr Edgar Zimmer of Bucher Unipektin (left in the picture) has been working in the fruit processing industry for more than 25 years. His educational background is beverage technology and oenology which he studied in Geisenheim and Giessen, Germany. He earned his PhD from the University of Giessen with a thesis on fundamental research about technology and composition of naturally cloudy apple juice. In 1996 he joined Bucher in Switzerland, today Bucher Unipektin AG, as Development Engineer and later as Product Manager Filtration Systems. Since 2007 Edgar has been Head of Technology and Development.

He has been involved with the IFU since 2003 and in 2009, he became Vice-Chairman of the IFU Science and Technology Commission.

2019 IFU Innovation Award - Tetra Pak

Maria Norlin (centre of the picture) accepted the award on behalf of Tetra Pak and gave the world's first presentation on this technology combining UV and filtration at the IFU Technical Workshop in Athens in 2019.

Maria has worked at Tetra Pak Processing Systems since 2008 across different areas of expertise, such as technical product management within Mixing, Blending, Dosing, as well as product management within Heating. She led a team of food technologists and product managers who were responsible for developing and managing the Tetra Pak JNSD Processing Portfolio and technology expertise. Tetra Pak's technology utilises sterile filtration in conjunction with heat processing for juice, nectar and still drinks which reduces energy consumption by two thirds: a sustainable solution for the future.

2019 Significant Contribution - Dr Jürgen Hofsommer

The IFU is globally recognised for developing the IFU Methods of Analysis.

Dr Hofsommer (second from the right in the picture) played a vital role in the design and development of the Methods portfolio and its acceptance as the global standard for fruit juice analysis. After completing his food technology and his food chemistry studies at the Technical University of Berlin and other institutes, he assisted Professor Bielig at the famous Institute of Fruit and Vegetable for seven years. He then became the Managing Director of GfL, also in Berlin. From 1989 until 2003 he chaired the IFU Commission for Methods of Analysis with an ability to simplify complex matters, always striving for the best results and forward thinking. This made his time as Chair of MAC a benchmark for later commission chairmen, which his son Mikko is now experiencing.

2019 IFU Commissioner of the year - Dr David Hammond

Dr David Hammond is the Vice-Chair of the Methods of Analysis Commission with significant contribution towards method and recommendation development but also representing the IFU and the Legislation Commission on a number of Codex committees.

He has 30 years experience in the fruit juice and authenticity area and has been with Eurofins for 12 years, prior to that Cadbury Central research centre for 24 years. He attends a number of other industry committees such as the AIJN Code of Practice Expert Group and UK DEFRA authenticity and methodology working group.

2019 Student Excellence - Jack Fehlberg

Jack Fehlberg of Michigan State University - Jack's masters thesis project focused on utilising waste generated from the orange juice process (orange peels) to replace petroleum-based polymer materials used in food packaging to enhance its sustainability.

Jack successfully transformed orange peel waste into usable filler for the production of novel food packaging materials. He determined the effects of the orange peels filler's absence/presence of zest, particle size and amounts within a polymer matrix in order to provide industry with the best physical characteristics of orange peel waste for production of the material. A presentation on the project can be found on the IFU website in Juice Conference 2020 presentations under the events top menu.

2018 Significant Contribution - Prof. Dr. Helmut Dietrich

This was awarded to Prof. Dr. Helmut Dietrich (left in the picture), past Chair of the IFU Science & Technology Commission and long-time supporter of the juice industry and IFU. Prof. Dr. Dietrich is also the former Head of Hochschule Geisenheim and the author of the nutrition policy paper which provides an extensive scientific review on the nutrition benefits of juices.

2018 Innovation Award - PepsiCo and Citrosuco

Mario Bavaresco (right in the picture), CEO of Citrosuco, and Frank Aurich (centre), Snr Director Global Procurement of PepsiCo, accepted this award on behalf of Citrosuco and PepsiCo for the development of aseptic bulk shipping of NFC orange juice.

2017 IFU Innovation Award - Erbslöh

Dr Robert Könitz (left in the picture) accepted the award on behalf of Erbslöh Geisenheim AG.

The “IFU Award for Innovation” was for their FloraCLair® method: FloraClair® and Tannivin® Galléol are used as the optimised fining combination to facilitate a technology free from animal products for fruit juice or fruit-based beverage production. The fining combination of a specially selected quality phyto-protein from peas with a select precipitation tannin is a successful and reliable concept for vegan fining and stabilisation of fruit juices and fruit-based beverages.

2017 Significant Contribution - Mr Paul Zwiker

This was awarded to Mr Paul Zwiker (right in the picture) for his long standing active support for the juice industry, associations, summits, workshops and seminars.

After obtaining his diploma in Food Engineering at the Federal Technical University Zurich, Mr Zwiker worked at Obipektin and became the CEO of the Obi Group in 1979. He held this position until his retirement. He volunteered in various associations and organisations and he was the President and a true ambassador of IFU for many years.

2016 IFU Innovation Award - CFT

Mario Gozzi (left in the picture) accepted the award on behalf of CFT.

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2016 Significant Contribution - Bucher Unipektin

This was awarded to Hartmut Haverland (right in the picture) ....