Harper Adams University final year student Charlotte Reynolds has won an international food competition with an innovative new project she created for her dissertation.
The BSc (Hons) Food and Consumer Studies student will be going to two international food conventions as a prize for winning the Global Pulse Confederations #LovePulses Worldwide competition with her new lupin crisp product.
Charlotte, 25, from London, said: “For my university dissertation, I wanted to combine my passion for cutting edge innovation with the ‘International Year of Pulses’ (IYP) initiative to create a new product.
“Through extensive research, it became apparent that whilst lupins were considered a sustainable pulse with brilliant nutritional credentials, little had been documented about their use to improve public health. It was also interesting to discover that statistics on lupins within the UK agricultural industry go unrecorded, essentially making it a hidden crop.
“Combining the IYP initiative and current UK market trends and demands for plant-based dietary foods, I created Blooming Food’s lupin crisps. Blooming Food’s lupin crisps are an innovative, uncomplicated and appetising snack, which are rich in protein and low in fat and calories. This makes them very appealing to increasingly health conscious consumers.
“Whilst trawling through information to find sources for my project, I saw Pulse Canada’s ‘Mission ImPULSEible’ new product competition. I emailed to ask whether I would be eligible to enter and they pointed me to the Global Pulse Confederation’s #LovePulses worldwide competition.
“I felt anxious about entering because I believed the odds of me winning against entrants from potentially 193 countries was practically non-existent. It was my project supervisor Lorna White that encouraged me to enter by saying that participation in the event would be great to declare on my CV whether I got placed or not.
“A few weeks later I received an email asking if I would be willing to give a talk at Food Matters Live due to my success in the competition. It was due to this email that I indirectly found out I had won first prize as the official email had gone into my spam folder!
“It was a complete shock, which is still only beginning to sink in.
“To be awarded first place in the virtual stream of the LovePulses competition is a dream come true. The judges’ belief in this product, as well as the recognition for the hard work that has gone into it, is a life changing honour which will never be surpassed.”
Charlotte hopes to launch Blooming Food as a business after graduating.