This year SIAL focused on sustainability – we focused on winning a gold medal, too!

‘Food waste stops at the gates of SIAL’ was the slogan of this year’s biggest food event, held in Paris, where after 26 years Hungary won a Global SIAL d’Or gold medal! Compared with 2010 the number of visitors grew by 10 percent to 150,192 and 63 percent of them came from more than 200 countries.

These numbers show SIAL’s solid position as the global leader in agri-food matters: this is the place where representatives of the key actors in the sector meet. Hungary’s collective and individual stands received many visitors already on the first day and in many cases these visits resulted in orders. Through the impetus of XTC World Innovation, TNS Sofres and 29 SIAL d’Or partners, the Innovations Corner undeniably consolidated SIAL’s expertise as a laboratory and observatory of supply and demand in food innovation. In the current gloomy economic climate, the trade fair’s strategic dimension – demonstrated by the 200 events and conferences on today’s economic and political issues – left its mark. ’Our aim was to strengthen the proximity between the sector players present. It is now ‘mission accomplished’ – remarked Valérie Lobry, managing director of SIAL’s agriculture and food industry division. In the afternoon of 21 October we had the chance to witness food history in the making: after becoming a category winner in May, PLP Seafood’s SELFISH product won the Global SIAL d’Or! Sealed Air developed the packaging PLP Seafood’s fish product line that makes life easier for housewives: for the first time they are offered ready-for-the-oven fish in a foil bag. Péter Palotás, owner and managing director of PLP Seafood Hungary told that they are most happy about their SELFISH trout with herb butter in the ovenable bag winning the Global SIAL d’Or, crowning their hard work of developing this innovative product line, which can turn anyone into a kitchen fairy. For many years now SIAL, a responsible exhibition, has aimed to implement an approach that is consistent with its sustainable development policy. Joining the fight against food waste, by the end of the trade fair nearly 50 tons of food, which exhibitors did not want to take home, was collected and handed over to 200 volunteers to be given to people in need.