The best new casual dining innovations of the year were announced today at Casual Dining 2019. Carlsberg UK’s Snap Pack, Hellmann’s Vegan Mayonnaise, Lamb Weston Meijer’s Hot2Home, and Rubies in the Rubble’s Ketchup were all awarded Gold in the show’s prestigious Innovation Challenge Awards.
Four companies also received silver awards, while eight took home the bronze.
Gold award winners
- Carlsberg UK — Snap Pack
- Hellmann’s — Hellmann’s Vegan Mayonnaise
- Lamb Weston Meijer — Hot2Home
- Rubies in the Rubble — Rubies in the Rubble Ketchup
Matthew Kelly, national account manager at Carlsberg UK: “We are super proud to have won gold in the Casual Dining Show Innovation Challenge for our Carlsberg Snap Pack. Snap Pack is a revolution in packaging design that removes the need for the plastic high cone rings on multi pack cans and replaces them with small glue dots. This single change reduces our global plastic usage by 1200 tonnes, which is the equivalent of 60 million plastic carrier bags. Casual Dining is a fantastic two days that really helps us engage with our customers in a lively and creative space. The new venue really worked for us and we will be back next year.”
Josephine Robert, Assistant Brand Manager at Unilever Food Solutions, says: “We are honoured to have won an Innovation Challenge Gold Award for our Hellmann’s Vegan Mayo! We believe that everybody should be able to enjoy Nations’s favourite mayo without the taste sacrifice we so often see in vegan products and we were delighted with the judges’ feedback, particularly being named the ‘best vegan mayonnaise that they had ever tasted.’ It was wonderful to have the good reviews echoed through visitors to the Hellmann’s stand, for example with many asking when they can buy it; Pub/Bar customers saying they “can’t taste the difference” and a Vegan Chef saying “it was about time Hellmann’s brought out a Vegan Mayo’. The show itself had a wide range of operator types: airlines, pubs, contract catering, food ingredients companies, meal box companies. It was great to see so many large chain customers and from such a large range of channels.”
Andrea Deutschmanek, Lamb Weston’s Country Marketing Manager UK & IRL, says: “We work to understand the challenges our customers face, always trying to find a better way. Winning this award means that we have succeeded in our goal to be the most inventive potato company in the business. Hot2Home is an exciting, innovative solution in a growing market which can boost sales and create consumer satisfaction for operators.”
Jenny Costa, founder of Rubies in the Rubble: “We are so excited that Rubies’ tomato ketchup has been recognised as the industry leading innovation amongst all the big players!! The team have worked so hard to create a ketchup that tastes delicious but is also better for you and better for the planet! The future is RUBIES!”
Silver award winners
- Black Fire Coffee Tequila — Black Fire Coffee Tequila
- Imaginative Cuisine — Gastromist White Truffle Oil
- Jubel Beer — Jubel Alpine: Beer Cut With Peach
- Yee Kwan Ice Cream — Vegan Matcha Green Tea Ice Cream
Bronze award winners
- Eurilait — Al Fresco Cheese Sausage (Original)
- Fentimans — Fentimans Connoisseurs Tonic Water
- The Hygiene Company — Hygiene360
- LUXLO Spirits — LUXLO
- The Meatless Farm Co — Meat Free Mince
- Rude Health — Organic Turmeric Latte 1L (GF)
- Sea Arch – Not Gin — Sea Arch – Not Gin
- Sea Products International — Ocean Pearl Salt & Pepper Squid
This year’s judges (pictured below with Casual Dining’s group event director Chris Brazier) included: James Elliot, co-founder of Pizza Pilgrims; Chris Knights, group executive chef at Young’s; Brian Trollip, Brian Trollip, chief operations wallah of Dishoom; Angela Malik, strategy director at Think Hospitality; Gavin Smith, operations director at Pizza Pilgrims; chef and consultant Jay Morjaria; Kate Eastwood, sales & marketing director at Revolution Bars Group; and Megan Lewis-Thomas, head of food development & marketing concessions, franchising & new concepts at Casual Dining Group; and Simon Woplin, head of innovation at Ambassador Theatre Group.
