Photo: Mikal Schlosser

Students awarded prize for vegan do-it-yourself cheese

Food, fish and agriculture Food technology Food production

Four master students at the Technical University of Denmark have once again won a prize for their do-it-yourself product, which transforms chickpea brine into a vegan cheese.

Four international students, who are enrolled in the Master of Science in Food Technology programme at the Technical University of Denmark, DTU, have been recognized for a third time for an innovative product they have developed. The product is a mixture of plant-based ingredients that can turn chickpea brine into a sliceable vegan cheese.

The team has taken out top spot in the GreenTech category in the Venture Cup innovation competition, in which university students from all of Denmark compete to see, who has come up with the most inventive idea.

The product has already won first prize in DTU’s Green Challenge innovation competition in June 2018 as well as a silver plaque and 3,000 euros in October 2018 at the international Ecotrophelia competition in Paris.

The four students behind the idea have founded a startup company named Cheese It Yourself and are working to make their idea market ready before they graduate in the summer of 2019. Among other things, they are participating in the Ignite programme at DTU Skylab, where startups receive help and guidance in the process of establishing a business.

The team has developed their product during a course at the National Food Institute at DTU, where students receive help to develop innovative food products.

Read more

Read a more detailed description of Cheese It Yourself in an article from the November 2018 edition of the university’s newspaper, DTU Avisen, which was written after the product won silver at the Ecotrophelia competition: Students invent eco-friendly vegan cheese.

The Danish Foundation for Entrepreneurship has supported the development of a Danish Ecotrophelia collaboration across the Danish universities.