The Innovations Showcase at the 2017 PROCESS EXPO has announced their finalists for the Innovations Award presentations that will take place on Day 1 of the show (Tuesday, September 19), beginning at 1:30 pm in Booth #4624 at Chicago's McCormick Place Convention Center. There are three finalists in each of the following seven categories: Bakery/Grains/Seeds/Snacks; Beverage; Dairy; Meat/Poultry/Seafood; Prepared Foods/Fruits and Vegetables; Confectionery/Candy/Sweets; and Pet Foods. The finalists were selected by members of the industry's trade press.  For a full list of all of the products that have been entered and selected, click here.

Each of the 21 finalists will present to a select panel of food processor judges who in turn will select one from each category to be recognized as the Most Innovative New Product.  Attendees of PROCESS EXPO are invited to the presentations and will also be invited to judge all entrees and enter their vote for the People's Choice Award.

"FPSA and PROCESS EXPO would like to thank all of the exhibitors who submitted their products for the Innovations Showcase and Awards program. This new initiative clearly demonstrates that PROCESS EXPO is the event where companies are showcasing the latest innovations for the food processing industry," said Tom Kittle, chairman of FPSA and president of Handtmann, Inc. and Handtmann Canada, Ltd. "We invite all PROCESS EXPO attendees to join us for the finalist presentations and vote for the most innovative products in the People's Choice Award."

The Bakery/Grains/Seed/Snacks finalists are:

  • Alpet D2 Quat-Free Surface Sanitizer by Best Sanitizers, Inc.
  • Luminar 4070 AOTF-NIR Process Analyzer from Brimrose Corporation of America
  • Nilfisk, Inc.'s Certified Industrial Vacuum for Safe, Compliant Collection of Combustible Dust

The Beverage category finalists are:

  • M15D-SF Screw Fed Disintegrator by Corenco
  • HSC Series Hygienic Spring Check Valve by Dixon Sanitary
  • IMSB Ice Machine Sanitizer by RGF Environmental Group, Inc.

The Confectionery/Candy/Sweets finalists are:

  • TraceFREE Electric Impedance Pipe Heating from Banner-Day
  • Color-Coded Lobby Dustpan and Broom Set by Remco Products Corporation
  • Nilfisk, Inc.'s Certified Industrial Vacuum

The Dairy category finalists are

  • FCHL 160 Automatic Clipping and Hanging Machine by Poly-clip System
  • MAGNATTACK MAG-RAM Self Cleaning Magnet from Powder-Solutions, Inc.
  • LifeTec Process Filters from the Donaldson Company

From the Meat/Poultry/Seafood category the finalists include

  • Pulled Pork Cooking and Shredding Machine from AmTrade Systems
  • Slicer S6 from Weber, Inc.
  • ZUBIOX Biodegradable Cooking Casings and Shrink Vacuum Bags from Zubex USA LLC

The Pet Foods finalists are

  • CookerCloud from Blentech Corporation
  • Continuous Pet Food Production with Alignate Casing from Handtmann
  • Color-Coded Lobby Dustpan and Broom Set from Remco Products Corporation

The Prepared Foods category finalists are

  • Leica Geosystems' 3D Laser Scanning for the Food and Beverage Industry
  • Portion Pack with Snapsil Opening Feature from Multivac Inc.
  • Variable Speed Chiller from Delta T Systems.