SIAL d’Or Finalists Named

MONTREAL — Yogurt targeted to men, a spray-delivered orange soda for kids, and boil-in-bag pasta were among the finalists in the SIAL d’Or competition held here last month in conjunction with SIAL Montreal.

The competition, in which SN participated as a judge representing the U.S., sought to identify the most innovative new products from around the world that were introduced in 2011. Trade journalists from 29 countries submitted products from their respective countries in nine different categories, and then judged them based on their innovation and sales success.

The winners in each category compete for the SIAL d’Or grand prize, which is scheduled to be announced at the SIAL Paris exhibition in October.

No products from the U.S. made it to the finals. Dole Frozen Fruit Smoothie Shakers were the second-place finisher in the sweet frozen category, and won the country SIAL d’Or for the U.S. as the product with the most votes among all U.S. products that were submitted.

The finalists, each of wins a SIAL d’Or prize for their respective category, were:

• Mammoth Yoghurt from New Zealand, a large-size, single-serve yogurt in a square container marketed specifically toward men (chilled dairy category).

• Selfish Trout from Hungary, a bake-in-bag, butter-and-herb seasoned trout in a vacuum bag to minimize fish odor and mess (chilled non-dairy category).

• Lagris boil-in-bag pasta from Czech Republic, which uses 100% semolina to prevent sticking; packaged in individual servings (savory grocery category).

• Guzzle Puzzle, a jelly candy from Kraft’s Natural Confectionery Co. in the U.K. that allows kids to piece different flavors together to create their own snack (sweet grocery category).

• Foglia a Foglia, or Leaf by Leaf, a line of frozen leafy vegetables from Passione Verde in Italy, including spinach and chard, that uses special technology to keep the individual leaves separate from freezer to plate (frozen savory category).

• Ice Joy granulated ice cream from Russia in a variety of flavors that uses innovative technology to form the ice cream in small balls of 5-6 mm (sweet frozen category).

• Turbo Tango, an aerosol-propelled orange soda from the U.K. that allows consumers to spray a foamy blast of orange soda directly into their mouths (non-alcoholic beverage category).

• Gotas del Marqueés spirit sachet line from Spain that offers a small amount (7 ml) of alcoholic beverage for flavoring individual cups of coffee (alcoholic beverage category).

• Gerard Bertrand sulfur-free wine from France, additive-free and environmentally friendly, from Naturae (wine category).