November 20 2009 –  National Starch Food Innovation, the ingredients company that had been earmarked for sale by its Dutch owner AkzoNobel, has won this year’s Food Ingredients Excellence Awards main prize.

National Starch received the award for its ingredient N-Dulge FR, a co-texturiser which is said to enable the amount of butter, margarine or shortening used in cake recipes to be reduced by 75%.

The awards are part of the Food Ingredients Europe (FIE) biennial event for the global ingredients industry, which took place this week in Frankfurt, Germany.

National Starch was among 13 short-listed ingredients vying for the main prize.

Henry Dixon, chair of the judges, said: “In our final analysis we looked for an ingredient that not only benefited 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 it was rewarding to gain such recognition from the industry.

AkzoNobel had signalled its intention to sell the specialty starches business (the former ICI Specialty Starch business) after its acquisition of ICI.

The plan was for a sale to go through by the end of 2008 but any potential deal was put on hold because of the credit crisis.

As the intended sale did not take place in 2008, the business was re-classified earlier this year as “continuing operations” within the Specialty Chemicals segment of Akzo.

by Sarah Hills FoodBizDaily.com London