MONTANA ALIMENTARI: registration and presentation of projects for the third edition of the “Premio Montana alla Ricerca Alimentare” (Montana Food Research Prize), by 28 February 2009

• The initiative, directed at young Italian researchers, promotes scientific research on food with a prize valued at 100,000 Euro.

• The jury includes Prof. Carlo Cannella, President of INRAN (National Food and Nutrition Research Institute), and Prof. Fulvio Marzatico of the Pavia University "Università degli Studi".

• The institutional campaign for the Prize has commenced.

Following the success of the first two years, Montana Alimentari, a Cremonini Group company, has launched the third edition of the "Premio Montana alla Ricerca Alimentare", an innovative initiative for the scientific research sector and world.

Montana, aware of the evolution of food requirements and their importance in all implications of human life, wished to create this Prize with the objective of promoting and encouraging Italian scientific research on food and overcome the current confines of knowledge in this field.

The initiative, reserved for young researchers (the age limit is 45), has the specific purpose of supporting the Italian research world and contributing to enhance a profession that too often finds itself without better recognition, both professional and economic.

The Prize, awarded annually, envisages a payment to the value of 100,000 Euro, to be divided in equal parts between the researcher (or research group) and the public or private research institute to which they belong (or another indicated thereby), legally situated in Italy. The recognition will be assigned to the project that has developed innovative concepts on the food theme and is judged worthy by an independent jury. The funds destined to the Institute must be invested in support of research.

The jury for this edition has been enlarged to 7 members with the inclusion of Prof. Carlo Cannella (President of INRAN, the National Food and Nutrition Research Institute) and Prof. Fulvio Marzatico (lecturer at the Faculty of Mathematical, Physical and Natural Sciences of the Pavia University), who have been added to Prof. Paolo Aureli (Superior Health Institute), Prof. Stefano Cinotti (President of the Brescia Animal Disease Control and Prevention Institute), Prof. Giulio Testolin (Nutritionist of the Milan University), Dr. Loris Zaghini (Director of the Animal Origin Food Hygiene Area of the Mantua ASL - Local Health Authority) and Mr. Paolo Berselli (Operations Manager of Montana Alimentari SpA).

The last date for the presentation of registration requests is fixed as 28 February 2009, as provided in the competition announcement available at the registered office of Montana Alimentari S.p.A and/or downloadable from the Internet site www.montanafood.it. "The Premio Montana alla Ricerca Alimentare" for this edition will again be assigned by June 2009.

An information campaign in the main Italian newspapers will commence from early February to encourage young researchers to present their projects by the expiry date.

The first two editions of the prize, in 2007 and 2008, resulted in a high number of applicants exceeding all expectations: over 40 projects were submitted and examined by the jury, originating from all over the country and all the principal Italian universities.

The Prize for the first edition was awarded to the researcher Sara Spilimbergo of the Industrial Materials and Technologies Department of the Trent University Engineering Faculty, supervisor of the "Alternative pasteurization to the thermal process" research project. The Prize for the 2008 edition instead went to the research group represented by Luca Fontanesi and Daniela Giovanna Calò, respectively of the Agrifood Protection and Valorisation (Diproval) and Statistical Sciences Departments of the Bologna University, which conducted research entitled "Identifier of Bio-markers for the evaluation of meat quality: an innovative approach".

Montana Alimentari S.p.A., a Cremonini Group company, is amongst the leaders in the sector of production, marketing and distribution of cured meats, snacks and ready-to-eat gastronomy, with over 230 products. Montana Alimentari is today the second operator in the Italian canned meat market with a share of over 21%. In 2007 the company achieved revenues of 195.2 million Euro, up by 16.0% with respect to 2006.

Castelvetro di Modena, February 2 2009

Contact:
Luca Macario
Press Office
Cremonini SpA
Tel 059 754627
Luca.macario@cremonini.com