CHICAGO LONDON — The Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) and Tate Lyle Food Systems today announced a new student competition that will foster student innovation and scientific exploration of global food science issues. This new partnership focuses on the need for talented food scientists to meet future global demands for safe, nutritious and affordable food.

“This generation of food scientists will need to develop new and innovative ways to address consumer demand for a variety of food products tailored to specific tastes and needs,” said IFT President Mary Ellen Camire, PhD, CFS. “The IFT Global Student Innovation Challenge seeks to foster creative solutions that are also sustainable and practical.”

Through the “IFT Global Student Innovation Challenge,” sponsored by Tate Lyle Food Systems, students from around the world (MS, PhD or global equivalent) will leverage their food science and technology knowledge to participate in a competition focusing on research and development challenges to creating products that meet marketplace needs.

For the inaugural competition, the students will design an innovative dairy dessert applying a food stabilizer system (combination of more than one single ingredient in a dry blend) to deliver exciting new textures. Their dessert concepts will be designed for widespread commercial distribution, taking into account cost and availability of raw materials. Students will be asked to focus on a specific consumer market and provide a business rationale for their product. Four students will be selected as finalists and will receive a $3,000 travel stipend to attend IFT15 in Chicago in July 2015. The winning student will receive a plaque and a trip to visit one of Tate Lyle’s Global Innovation Centers.

“As innovation in food applications is an integral part of Tate Lyle Food Systems, we recognize that our continued success depends on the support of future new professionals,” said Tate Lyle’s Senior Vice President Global Applications Luis Fernandez, CFS. “Our company is delighted to partner with IFT as a global organization committed to feed the minds that feed the world.”

For information about the competition, please visit http://www.ift.org/community/students/competitions/student_innovation_challenge.aspx

Tate Lyle has made a three-year commitment to sponsoring this competition and the theme will vary each year.

FOR MORE INFORMATION: Mindy Weinstein 312.604.0231 mweinstein@ift.org

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About IFT This year marks the 75th anniversary of the Institute of Food Technologists. Since its founding in 1939, IFT has been committed to advancing the science of food. Our non-profit scientific society—more than 18,000 members from more than 100 countries—brings together food scientists, technologists and related professionals from academia, government and industry. For more information, please visit ift.org.

About Tate Lyle

Tate Lyle is a global provider of ingredients and solutions to the food, beverage and other industries, with operations in over 30 locations worldwide.

Tate Lyle operates through two global divisions, Speciality Food Ingredients and Bulk Ingredients, supported by our Innovation and Commercial Development group. The Group's strategy is to become a leading global provider of Speciality Food Ingredients through a disciplined focus on growth, and by driving Bulk Ingredients for sustained cash generation to fuel this growth.

Speciality Food Ingredients consists of three platforms: Texturants, which includes speciality starches and stabilisers; Sweeteners, which comprises nutritive sweeteners and our range of no-calorie sweeteners including SPLENDA^® Sucralose; and our Health and Wellness portfolio, which includes speciality fibres and our salt-reduction offering. Additionally, our Food Systems business provides a wide variety of blended ingredient solutions.

Tate Lyle Bulk Ingredients includes bulk sweeteners, industrial starches and fermentation products (primarily acidulants). Corn co-products from both divisions are primarily sold as animal feed.

Tate Lyle is listed on the London Stock Exchange under the symbol TATE.L. American Depositary Receipts trade under TATYY. In the year to 31 March 2014, Tate Lyle sales totalled £3.1 billion.

For more information, visit www.tateandlyle.com. SPLENDA^® is a trademark of McNeil Nutritionals, LLC.

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