Berglind Ósk Alfreðsdóttir, Helga Franklínsdóttir students at the University of Iceland and Sigríður Hulda Sigurðardóttir students at the Iceland Academy of the Arts received a special award from the jury in Ecotrophelia, which is a competition in environmentally friendly food innovation.
25 judges from 18 participating countries and 7 from large companies and the European Union liked the seaweed soup and gave the Icelandic participants a special prize for having the most interesting new idea. One judge was from Iceland and it was Ragnheiður Héðinsdóttir from the Confederation of Icelandic Industries.
It is safe to say that the Icelanders' results are great considering that about 120 teams took part in national competitions and 18 teams advanced to the main competition itself, which was held in Cologne, Germany.
It should be noted that in Chinese cuisine, sea urchins are mostly used in soups, but it can take several days to cook them as the preparation is complicated and time consuming. Therefore, the idea was to make a product that would be suitable for the Chinese market but would be accessible to the consumer, quick to cook and would be suitable for long haulage. The result was a cup soup with freeze-dried sea oysters that only needed to be poured over boiled water and then it would be ready for consumption, but the soup is named Hai Shen.
The collaboration between the Ecotrofood project of the Icelandic Innovation Center, Matís and the University of Iceland means that Icelandic students are participating in Ecotrophelia for the second year in a row. It is worth mentioning that the Confederation of Icelandic Industries, the Faculty of Food and Nutrition at the University of Iceland and the Innovation Center awarded prizes in the Icelandic national competition and that Product Development Center for Seafood at Matís has supported the project for the competition in Cologne.
Guðjón Þorkelsson, head of department at Matís and associate professor at the University of Iceland, has guided the students and supported them along with many of Matís' employees. In addition, the relatives of the students have faithfully supported them.
For further information Guðjón Þorkelsson with Matís, Helga Franklínsdóttir (690-5255) and Berglind Ósk Alfreðsdóttir (865-1125).