Grupo Bimbo, the leading baking company in the world, announced the winners of the Bimbo Pan-American Prize in Nutrition, Food Science and Technology. With this edition, the firm completes a decade of promoting research and innovation, while offering products with a better nutritional profile and satisfying the customer´s preferences.

The award was instituted in 2004 by Grupo Bimbo, as a global project aimed at linking the industry and the academy. This partnership has allowed the company to recognize researchers who do outstanding work with international relevance. We know that technological innovation and the nutritional health of the population are key factors in the development of society.

PhD Patricia Villalobos, Grupo Bimbo’s Director of Innovation, said that "this recognition crystallizes the interest of the company in promoting scientific research in these fields of knowledge, both in Mexico and in the rest of the continent."

Over the last 10 years, the company has received nearly 1,000 research projects in the areas of Nutrition, Food Science and Technology from the four participating geographic areas: United States, Mexico, Central and South America. Every year, the projects are evaluated by a Scientific Jury integrated by 24 expert scientists and researchers from prestigious Universities and Research Centers.

In the 2013 edition, the jury evaluated over 100 papers, rewarding 16 researchers from the most prestigious universities in the United States, Guatemala, Argentina, Cuba, El Salvador, Brazil and Mexico.

The winners of Mexico were: Juan Fernando López in the field of Human Nutrition for his work entitled "Compliance in micronutrient supplementation in children of 3-24 months of age in semi-rural communities in Mexico"; Esperanza Martínez for her work "The effect of unsaponifiable components of avocado and soybean on the secretion and insulin sensitivity in obese patients"; Silverio García for his work "Luteolin content and antioxidant activity"; Patricia Bustamante for her thesis entitled "Production of oligosaccharides from lactose and sucrose transglycosylation activity grade GRAS microorganisms" .

The winners of United States were: Peter Havel for his work entitled "Metabolic responses to prolonged consumption of glucose- and fructose-sweetened beverages are not associated with postprandial or 24-hour glucose and insulin excursions"; Daniel Garrido for his work "A molecular bases for the enrichment of bifidobacteria in the infant gastrointestinal tract"; Vivian Wu for her work "A piezoelectric immunosensor for specific capture and enrichment of viable pathogens by quartz crystal microbalance sensor, followed by detection with antibody-functionalized gold nanoparticles"; and Xiaolei Shi for her work entitled "Improving the value of peanut flour using enzymatic hydrolysis" .

The first decade of the Bimbo Pan-American Prize in Nutrition, Food Science and Technology, has been successful in its goal of contributing to the development of new technology platforms, to an increase of competitive products in the market and to the overall development of society through the linkage between industry and academia.

In 2014, the Bimbo Pan-American Prize in Nutrition, Food Science and Technology is evolving to become a model of open innovation and creativity, now allowing the participation of external professionals and public at large, in generating ideas directed at fulfilling the innovation needs of Grupo Bimbo. With this award, the company is looking for the best ideas for the development of new products and/or technological innovations aimed at helping the Group fulfill its mission: to Nourish, Delight and Serve our world.