Yili shows off its eco-friendly packaging without printing and ink for its Yili Satine dairy products. [Photo provided to en.hhhtnews.com]

Chinese dairy giant Inner Mongolia Yili Industrial Group, or Yili, stole the show at the World Food Innovation Awards 2023 held in the UK on March 20, winning a raft of awards.

Together with its subsidiary Ausnutria Dairy, the company – based in North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region – won 17 awards. They included one top prize – the World Food Innovation Award – as well as 13 nomination awards and three commendation awards.

This event marked the first World Food Innovation Award scooped up by a Chinese company.

The fun packaging for Yili cheese ice cream goes on show. [Photo provided to en.hhhtnews.com]

After an extensive review by judges, Yili's Satine No Printing No Ink Environmental-friendly Edition was named the winner of the Packaging Design Award.

The cartons adopt FSC-certified green and eco-friendly packaging materials, while some raw materials for the bottle caps come from sugar cane. The outer box is made of recycled milk cartons and the use of eco-friendly paper handles can reduce about 260 kilograms of plastic per 100,000 outer boxes.

Satine Active Lactoferrin Organic Pure Milk, which was commended for the Artisan Product award, applies innovative advanced technology to maintain the original active characteristics of lactoferrin and the company says it uses more active lactoferrin to help improve the body's self-protection. Yili says it's the world's first organic pure milk with active lactoferrin at room temperature.

The World Food Innovation Award, sponsored by global authoritative industry media agency FoodBev Media and the IFE International Food and Beverage Exhibition, recognizes some of the most ambitious new products and developments in the food industry. It's known as the annual innovation barometer of the global food industry.

Experts discuss matters at Yili's European innovation center. [Photo provided to en.hhhtnews.com]