Food companies encouraged to invest in product and packaging innovation

April 6, 2011 - PRLog -- The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), through the Center for International Trade Expositions and Missions (CITEM), is promoting product and packaging innovation among local food companies to boost their competitiveness.

Related to this, CITEM launched the 2011 Trendy Award Competition to search for innovations in content and packaging of new food products and applications. The search also includes products that exemplify successful adaptation to consumer lifestyle and preferences as well as readiness for local and international market requirements.

“The Trendy Award will encourage food manufacturers to develop new product concepts and packaging solutions that cater to the demands of the global market. The increasingly competitive economic environment challenges us to continually expand and update our range of products to meet and anticipate our clients’ needs,” said Rosvi C. Gaetos, Executive Director of CITEM.

The competition is a component of the 8th International Food Exhibition (IFEX) Philippines, the largest and most comprehensive food event in the country. IFEX is slated from 12-14 May 2011 at the SMX Convention Center.

The competition is open to all Philippine-based food manufacturers, suppliers, traders, and consolidators participating in the 8th IFEX Philippines who have either successfully developed new products that have not been introduced to the market, or who have existing products that have been enhanced or improved in either form, packaging, formulation, or application.

The Trendy Award competition, conceptualized in 2000, is jointly initiated by CITEM and Chef Nancy Reyes-Lumen, editor in chief of Cook Magazine, one of the leading culinary publications in the country.

"[We started Trendy] at a time when there was much excitement about new products being developed for export - the sense of globalization was brewing and I was seeing that [the country has] the potential to beat our Asian competitors if we only knew how to package right," said Lumen.

Past Trendy awardees include Via Mare (2000's laing can foil container), Bote Central (2005's coffee alamid), Orient Foods Corporation (2008's chewy fruit bar), and Anjo's Farm (2009's Global Citation for microwavable bangus or milkfish), to name a few.

"The Trendy award gave us credibility as a company, [and] posed more challenges for us to come up with better products. It's an award to be proud of," said Vie Reyes, proprietor of Bote Central, 1st place winner of the 2005 Trendy award for coffee alamid or civet coffee.

Civet coffee, one of the most expensive coffee varieties in the world, comes from the beans of coffee berries eaten by civet cats or alamids.

Entries for 2011 will be judged according to the following criteria: newness of the idea, product innovation, packaging design and innovation, and market demand.

The entries will undergo a preliminary screening process by a technical screening committee composed of food industry and packaging experts from the Department of Science and Technology-Packaging Technology Division (DOST- PTD), the Food Development Center (FDC), the Bureau of Export Trade Promotions (BETP,) the Philippine Trade Training Center (PTTC), and the San Miguel Yamamura Packaging Corporation (SMYPC). Final evaluation of qualified entries will follow from a panel of well-known chefs, culinary school representatives, food writers, and food enthusiasts, including Lumen herself.

"I want to see reinvented, renewed, redesigned, yet artisanal, traditionally appealing food products. I want to see an integrated design that shows me someone young consulted with someone traditional and they came up with something [world-class]," said Lumen.

Deadline for the submission of entries is on 15 April 2011. The top three product winners will be presented during the IFEX Philippines Buyer Reception on the show’s second day.

For more information on the 2011 Trendy Award Competition, visit www.ifexphilippines.com.

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The Center for International Trade Expositions and Missions (CITEM) is an export promotions arm of the Philippine Department of Trade and Industry.