A snack designed to take care of children’s digestive health while caring for the planet, consisting of sticks made from red apple pomace from Alcobaça (PGI) and presented in a duo format with a fermented milk composition. This was the winning product of the 9th edition of the ECOTROPHELIA Portugal Award. In addition to the 1st Prize, worth €2,000, the winning team will participate in the ECOTROPHELIA Europe competition, to be held in Cologne, Germany.

Twenty projects and 77 university students from different regions of the country competed for this award, organised by PortugalFoods. Of these, eight finalist products were selected, and the overall winner, Snack-A-Tummy, stood out for presenting a versatile, healthy, nutritious food product that is an example of eco-food innovation.

As a partner in this edition of the ECOTROPHELIA award, UPTEC – Science and Technology Park of the University of Porto awarded the Tremo project the Rise Up distinction. Tremo is a deep-frozen vegetarian pastry that combines Portuguese tradition and food innovation. Inspired by the cultural connection between lupin beans and moments of conviviality, the project reinvents this Portuguese ingredient by integrating it into the pastry dough, replacing part of the wheat flour – the result is a more complete product that is a source of fibre and protein, with a Nutri-Score A rating. The distinction will guarantee the project team’s participation in UPTEC’s acceleration programme, the School of Startups, where they will benefit from mentoring, specialised training, and access to the UPTEC community and events.

The Green Essence handmade dark chocolate and spirulina bonbons, Briza kombucha, and Croquito deep-frozen croquettes made from legumes and insect flour also secured prominent places in the ECOTROPHELIA 2025 Award.

All finalist teams will also have access to a programme developed by EIT Food, the leading European innovation entity in the food sector, driven by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), which brings together and energises a broad ecosystem of companies, startups, research centres and universities at an international level.