From October 16 Zu 19, the International Dairy Federation (IDF) 2023 World Dairy Summit was held in Chicago, USA. During the event, the winners of the prestigious “IDF Dairy Innovation Award” were announced. Yili, leveraging its exceptional product quality and comprehensive, balanced innovation capabilities, won two awards: “Sustainable Packaging Innovation” and “New Product Innovation in Food Safety and Consumer Nutrition.” This makes Yili the only Chinese dairy company to win, and it received the highest number of awards globally. This follows Yili’s achievement in 2022, when it topped the “IDF Dairy Innovation Award” list, once again shining on the global dairy stage.
At the award ceremony, IDF President Piercristiano Brazzale presented the trophies and certificates to Yili in the presence of global industry leaders.
The World Dairy Summit, hosted by the International Dairy Federation, is the highest specification and largest scale event in the global dairy industry, regarded as a barometer for global dairy development. The presentation of the “IDF Dairy Innovation Award” is a crucial part of the summit, aimed at encouraging innovation in the dairy industry and promoting the achievement of sustainable development goals. It is the most influential and authoritative award in the global dairy industry, representing the highest annual honor.
Building Comprehensive Balanced Innovation to Lead Industry Development
This year’s “IDF Dairy Innovation Award” aims to showcase the innovative vitality of the global dairy industry, set global industry innovation examples, and promote the achievement of United Nations sustainable development goals. Adhering to the goal of “comprehensive value leadership,” Yili continues to increase investment in innovation and R&D, focusing on consumers and striving to provide nutritional support throughout the life cycle. Through innovative R&D, Yili drives the sustainable development of the company.
During the nomination phase, Yili led globally with four nominations and ultimately won two “IDF Dairy Innovation Awards.” The “Act with Love for the Earth – Satine’s Non-printed, Non-ink Eco-friendly Packaging” won the “Sustainable Packaging Innovation” award. The product features a pure white bottle, eliminating traditional ink printing and using laser printing only for necessary production date information. The bottle cap is made from sugarcane, and the outer box is made from recycled milk cartons, reducing the use of about 260 kilograms of plastic per 100,000 boxes and significantly cutting down raw material consumption. At the award ceremony, Richard Walton, a judge for the “IDF Dairy Innovation Award,” said, “Yili’s performance in innovation and sustainability is impressive! The Satine eco-friendly packaging design is ingenious, with no ink used and the ability to be recycled, balancing aesthetics and environmental protection. During the selection process, Satine stood out among many products.”
Yili’s “Ambient Cheese Stick” won the “New Product Innovation in Food Safety and Consumer Nutrition” award. The product breaks the constraints of traditional cold chain distribution and low-temperature storage, creating a new category of ambient cheese sticks for children, enriched with Lactobacillus rhamnosus BL-99, allowing more children to enjoy the nutrition and taste of cheese. Richard Walton commented, “The cheese stick enriched with Lactobacillus rhamnosus BL-99 is an astounding industry first, achieving a perfect blend of dairy and probiotics. This innovation breaks the consumption scene limitations of the cheese category, allowing it to be enjoyed anytime, anywhere, and aligns with Yili’s innovative practices in sustainability.”
Yili’s “Empowering Female Quality Managers, Showcasing Women’s Leadership in the Dairy Industry” project was nominated for the “Dairy Industry Innovation Practice for Women’s Empowerment” award. By taking multiple measures to empower female quality managers, Yili has opened career development channels for professional and managerial talents, encouraged women to participate in key technological projects and join social organizations, enhancing their professional skills and management levels, and establishing fair career advancement paths to help them showcase more in the workplace.
Yili’s “High-Calcium Cheese Ball” was nominated for the “New Product Innovation in Food Safety and Consumer Nutrition” award. This product meets children’s nutritional needs for growth and development, concentrating 2.5 times the milk protein and 5 times the calcium of milk, combining “delicious nutrition” with “innocent fun” through Disney princess and cute dinosaur designs.
Creating a Global Smart Chain to Uncover Industry Potential
In den letzten Jahren, Yili has frequently won global innovation awards, with continuous innovation achievements supported by Yili’s global innovation system and ecosystem. With the goal of “consumer value leadership,” Yili gathers cutting-edge global innovation resources, constantly pushing the boundaries of industry development, strengthening independent innovation capabilities, and continuously creating healthy products for all demographics, all consumption scenarios, and all life cycles.
Facing new industry development trends, Yili integrates R&D resources at home and abroad, building an innovation network that includes leading global R&D institutions, creating a “global smart chain” covering Asia, Europe, Oceania, and the Americas, gathering global dairy innovation wisdom and activating collaborative innovation in the industry chain.
Momentan, Yili has established 15 innovation centers worldwide and collaborates with innovation ecosystem partners to conduct R&D in the health food field. It has established innovation partnerships with international institutions like the International Life Sciences Institute, Wageningen University in the Netherlands, Lincoln University in New Zealand, the Technical University of Munich in Germany, and the Institute for Manufacturing at the University of Cambridge in the UK, as well as domestic universities like Peking University, China Agricultural University, Jiangnan University, and Sichuan University, continuously expanding its innovation ecosystem.
Innovation is key to achieving high-quality development in the dairy industry. As the leader in China’s dairy industry and the number one dairy company in Asia, Yili’s recognition on the global stage demonstrates the unique resilience and innovation vitality of China’s dairy industry. In the future, Yili will continue to focus on consumers, adhere to innovation leadership, increase investment in innovation and R&D, create more opportunities for global dairy development, unlock unlimited potential, and contribute to building a healthy world for everyone.
