Vegetarian "Bean Ready" stew wins first place at Ecotrophelia 2018 and will head to Paris in October for the European final

The Higher School of Biotechnology of the Portuguese Catholic University of Porto (ESB) has won yet another international prize. Students of the MSc in Food Technology have won the top Ecotrophelia Portugal 2018 prize. 

The competition is aimed at challenging participants to develop a ground-breaking food product.

The ready-to-eat dish, themed "Bean Ready", a vegetarian bean stew, made of traditional Portuguese products, with vegetable protein and plant fibre, is the Portuguese dish to "represent" Portugal in the final European competition, which will be held in Paris in the context of the SIAL- France, one of the main world-wide fairs of the food sector.

Patrícia Soares, leader of the winning team says that "we are aware of the major responsibility of representing Portugal in such a competition, but we will strive to achieve the best results".

The team is confident that they have won because they have valued traditional features of Portuguese gastronomy, such as taste and smell.

The Ecotrophelia Europe final is scheduled to happen on 21 and 22 October this year.