U.Porto finalists on the race for the Ecotrophelia 2021 Award

Students of the University of Porto have developed five out of the ten products that made it to the Ecotrophelia 2021 Prize finalists. This award aims at distinguishing and promoting the most eco-innovator food products by university students.

The shortlisted teams are the Legumiscas, by André Leandro Ribeiro Araújo, André Miguel Dias, Eduarda Jesus Santos Sousa, and Telmo Gabriel Barros Nunes, students of the Masters in Technology and Food Science (MTCA) of the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Porto (FCUP), who have developed this product in collaboration with colleagues of the Abel Salazar Biomedics Sciences Institute and created the deep-frozen vegan pataniscas" (codfish fritters) with chickpea flour and assorted vegetables.

Another finalist product is the LusoMochi, a dessert creation by MochiPortugal made of glutinous rice dough, with salty chestnut icy filling and quince jam core. The team comprises students Bárbara Ferreira, Diogo Freitas, João Marques and Tatiana Magalhães, of the Master of Consumer and Nutrition Sciences, of the FCUP and the Faculty of Nutrition and Food Sciences of the U.Porto (FCNAUP).

The chestnut was also the star product of the Al’Cast, which was developed by the Norteggi, by Ana Sofia Salgado, Helena Machado, Mafalda da Silva Paiva, Renata Amorim, of the MTCA. These are meatballs made of Portuguese brown chestnut, a low fat and high fibre vegan innovation.

Equally irresistible is the crunchy Togrão, another finalist product of the Ecotrophelia 2021; this is a combination of chickpea and orange peel. This snack was developed by MTCA students, Beatriz Ferreira, Gustavo Melo, Joana Moreira and Sara Pereira.

Another shortlisted team, the Pró-Omega, by Ângela Santos, Catarina Pereira, Clarisse Lopes, and Eulália Monteiro, also students at the Master in Technology and Food Science of the FCUP, decided to reinvent, sort of, a well-known “delicacy” by the Portuguese: the lupins, and to develop a vegan fillet, made up of linseed, beer yeast waste, seasoned with garam masala.

The five teams by the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Porto (FCUP) were coordinated by Luís Miguel Cunha, Susana Caldas Fonseca and José Carlos Ribeiro, professors of the department of Geoscience, Environment and land-use planning, as well as researchers of the GreenUPorto – Research Centre in Sustainable Agrifood Production.

Final is scheduled for 29 June

The ECOTROPHELIA Portugal 2021 final will be held on 29 June, at the Casa do Vinho Verde, in Porto. The final competition will feature the oral presentation of the projects to the National Jury and a tasting session of the products developed by each of the finalist teams.

In addition to a prize Money, the national winner will represent Portugal at the European final, in ANUGA 2021, in Germany, which will happen on 10 and 11 October this year.