The Students F&B Innovation Competition originated from the USDEC-Jiangnan University partnership. This yearly event allows us to deepen students’ knowledge and understanding of U.S. dairy ingredients’ performance in food systems, stimulate their creative potential and better prepare them for a successful career in the F&B industry.

This year’s theme was “Versatile and Sustainable – Dairy Permeate, Dairy Protein and Beyond” and required the teams to include dairy permeate as one of the ingredients in their prototypes. The competition received a lot of attention; the online voting site recorded more than 273,500 visits and more than 79,000 votes were casted.

We would like to sincerely thank the student participants that worked since last April, to develop great ideas and prototypes. We would also like to thank our judges andappreciate the time they took to participate in the event. We would finally like to acknowledge our partners, the team at Jiangnan University, for their work in supporting the students and creative thinking to be able to hold the event following the COVID-prevention guidelines.

Below is a visual recap of how the competition unfolded.

The results of the competition are in! Here are the prize-winning products.

First Place: 

Milk Beer - contains milk permeate and SMP

Second place:

Mushroom Flavored Meal Replacement Shake - contains permeate and MPC80

Kombucha - contains SMP, WPC80 and milk permeate


Third Place:

Dairy Porridge - contains MPC80 and dairy permeate


Double Layer Rice Pudding - contains dairy permeate, MPC80 and WPI

Emo Assassin - Pastry and Yogurt in 1 - contains whey permeate and WPC 80

Learn more about the 2021 JU Student Competition

For questions and additional information, please reach out to Annie Bienvenue at abienvenue@usdec.org.