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The winners have been revealed for the 2008 dairy innovation awards, hosted at the Grande Bretagne Hotel in Athens, Greece.

Tara Dairies of Israel and ingredients company LycoRed took the top Cream Award in the dairy innovation awards 2008, with YOU – a range of fortified dairy products targeting women 30-40 years old.

With categories for dairy drinks, desserts, cheese and children's products, along with categories for health, packaging, school milk and marketing initiatives, the awards attracted more than 90 entries from 21 countries. The awards were organised by Zenith International Publishing through its dairy innovation magazine.

Other winners The** Best New Dairy Drink** prize was awarded to naturally gorgeous from the UK for its dairy and fruit drink containing an appetite suppressant.

The Best New Dairy Dessert category was won by Canadian dairy company Saputo, with Le Coeur du Nectar – a soft, unripe cow and goat milk cheese with a fruit blend topping.

Fayrefield Foods of the UK took the Best New Cheese title with its Spoilt Cow mature Cheddar cheese, featuring the RSPCA's Freedom Food scheme logo, while Little Dish Custard Desserts, also from the UK, won the Best New Children's Product category.

As well as taking the top award, Tara Dairies won the Best New Health Initiative category, while the Best Packaging Initiative went to Italy's dipileg pot with incorporated spoon, designed for yogurt, fromage frais and dairy desserts.

A new category was the Best Newcomer Brand or Business, and was won by US-based WheyUp (entered by Edge PR). The company represents a breakthrough in the sports drink market: WheyUp is the first drink of its kind to combine whey protein isolate with a sugar-free, non-carbonated energy drink.

The Best School Milk Initiative came from the Danish Dairy Board with a 160-page handbook, produced in cooperation with school leaders, teachers, psychologists and parents' organisations, and distributed to parents through schools.

UK agency Weiden and Kennedy won the Best Marketing Campaign category with Good Food Deserves Lurpak, a campaign designed to grow the Arla Foods brand in a declining category.

"Our second awards attracted a wide range of entries from around the world," said dairy innovation editor, Geoff Platt. "These entries came from dairy companies and organisations both large and small, but all illustrated the high level of innovation, the high quality of the work and the diversity of activity that's going on in this exciting industry.

"These awards also recognise the dedication and enthusiasm of people working in this industry – some working in very difficult and challenging circumstances."

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