The debut of the European Food Processing Implementation Award has proved a major success and the first winner can now be proudly announced: Hertel GmbH from Salzburg, Austria, with its innovative “Hop Yield Enhancer”.
Hertel GmbH, Salzburg, Austria, has won the first European Food Processing Implementation Award with its innovation, the “Hop Yield Enhancer”. HighTech Europe, the European Food Processing Network of Excellence, was responsible for launching the contest.
The winning participant has developed a procedure and apparatus for enhancing the yield of bitter acids in brewing processes. Here, in contrast to conventional brewing processes, it is possible to use high temperatures for an optimal isomerisation of bitter acids without any negative effect on the thermal stress of the resulting wort.
As sufficient isomerisation of bitter acids is the limiting factor in boiling time and/or temperature, it is now possible for the first time to produce worts with a far lower thermal load. This is due to the fact that the wort boiling time/temperature can be considerably lowered, since isomerisation procedures are performed separately. Thus flavour stability, foam and colloidal stability of the final beer product can be enhanced to a major degree. The key advantage of this new technology is that breweries can generally brew identical beers with far less hop products than used before and hence reduce costs. As the apparatus can be easily retrofitted into existing breweries and as a result of the considerable savings made, the apparatus is self-financing. Thus it is interesting for all breweries worldwide.
The European Food Processing Implementation Award commends innovations in food processing and improvement of food quality which have been successfully developed along a knowledge transfer chain. The aim of this award is to encourage small and medium-sized enterprises in the food production industry to adopt innovative knowledge.
The prize is awarded by a jury of international experts. The winner received the European Food Processing Implementation Award, which consists of a work of art, from project coordinator Dr. Volker Heinz, during the award ceremony at the EFFoST conference in Dublin on November 11th 2010.
HighTech Europe is the first Network of Excellence for the food processing sector. It facilitates communication and knowledge transfer between industry and science in order to increase innovations in food technology across Europe. The network aims to achieve a durable integration of European R&D activities into high-tech food processing. Members of HighTech Europe are 22 partners from universities, applied research centres, technology transfer centres, food associations and enterprises.
Dr. Kerstin Lienemann
DIL Office Brussels
Rue du Luxembourg 47-51
B-1050 Brussels
Phone: 0032 (0)473 523 692
E-mail: coordinator@hightecheurope.eu
