Designed to celebrate and encourage innovative practices across the global dairy sector, the International Dairy Federation (IDF) has recently launched the IDF Dairy Innovation Awards (DIA) in partnership with Zenith Global and supported by headline sponsorship from Tetra Pak.

With a particular focus on Sustainability, both in terms of environmental care and positive social impact, the awards seek to stimulate innovative practices that improve farming and processing of milk and dairy foods. New technologies such as Robotics, the Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence, Alternative Energies applied to Dairy are some of the cutting-edge processes that the organizers expect to find among registered candidates.

The entries can be submitted from April 1 to July 1 through the IDF DIA’s website within twelve awards categories: Innovation in sustainable farming practices for the environment, animal care, and socio-economic impact, Innovation in sustainable processing, Innovation in research and development for farming, collecting & processing, new product development, food safety consumer nutrition, Innovation in sustainable packaging, Innovation in school milk programs and Innovation in Climate Action.

“Innovation is part of IDF’s DNA from its foundation back in 1903”, explains Piercristiano Brazzale, President of IDF. “Our mission is to foster the use of science, technology, and innovation to ensure the production and processing of milk and dairy products in safe, nutritious, and sustainable ways”, he adds. “We believe that this award will help innovative practices to be known and shared among relevant dairy actors at a global level”, Mr. Brazzale states.

The award winners will be announced on 12 September 2022 in a ceremony at the IDF World Dairy Summit in New Delhi, India. The World Dairy Summit is considered the most important meeting of the year for the global dairy community. As this edition will be held after a two-year recess due to the pandemic, the 2022 summit is expected to be attended by many participants from all over the world. This will give the winners of all the categories an unparalleled opportunity to be acknowledged and to have their innovations promoted among the most influencing personalities in Dairy’s global agenda.

“We really expect to have entries from all over the world since innovation takes place everywhere at many different levels”, Mr. Brazzale affirms. “We wish to identify these innovations to see them being put in practice globally to help dairy advance at a similar pace in all regions”, he adds. “This is particularly important for sustainability, one of the pillars of our organization, since we aim to have the best sustainable practices as a gold standard for dairy all around the world”, he concludes.

For further information, please check IDF Dairy Innovation Awards – Zenith Global