MSc student Morten Thybo (Molecular Nutrition and Food Technology) was on the team that won the FoodTech Challenge at FoodTech 2014 – Northern Europe’s largest trade fair for food technology held at the MCH exhibition centre in Herning in October 2014. Morten did his bachlor project with Esben Skipper Sørensen, Section for Molecular Nutrition at the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics (MBG).

A very simple solution to how people without access to clean water and refrigerators can nevertheless get a milk drink containing vitamins and protein ensured the five students on the team the title of winners of the FoodTech Challenge. In addition to Aarhus University students, there were students from the Technical University of Denmark, Aalborg University and the University of Copenhagen.

The winning team had been given an assignment by DuPont to find out how to supply areas with limited access to pure water and refrigerators with a milk-based blend of protein, vitamins and minerals. The starting point for the DuPont team was that 800 million people are starving, more than 200 million of whom live south of the Sahara. The team’s solution therefore targeted this area.

The solution was a plastic bag containing milk powder, which is filled with water from a plastic bottle. The bottle contains a small carbon unit to ensure that contaminated water is purified so that it can be used as drinking water.

In their decision, the panel of judges emphasised that it was a very simple solution with great potential for being put into practice. The team also included the possibility of opening up a new market for milk powder.

Read the media release at FoodTech.