Circular Vitamin C, BIOVIT's Innovate UK-funded project recovering natural Vitamin C from apple pomace, has won both the Enabling Technologies for Ingredients award and the overall Innovation of the Year prize at the IFE Manufacturing Ingredients Awards 2026.
A double win for circular innovation
Circular Vitamin C, BIOVIT's project recovering natural Vitamin C from apple pomace, was named Winner of the IFE Ingredients Awards 2026, taking both the Enabling Technologies for Ingredients award and the overall Innovation of the Year prize. The IFE Manufacturing Ingredients Awards, run in association with IFST, recognise the most significant ingredient innovations in UK food and drink manufacturing.
What is Circular Vitamin C?
Circular Vitamin C recovers natural Vitamin C from apple pomace - the dry waste left over after apple juice and cider production. Pomace is nutrient-rich and available in large quantities in South West Wales, where it is usually sent to landfill, emitting significant volumes of greenhouse gases. Rather than relying on synthetic, petrochemical-derived Vitamin C, the project produces a circular, naturally derived ingredient ready to be reintegrated into food and drink.
The project is funded by Innovate UK under the Launchpad: Net Zero Industry, South West Wales programme, and delivered with Swansea University's Natural Products BioHUB. Extraction development is led by Professor Chedly Tizaoui, Co-Principal Investigator (Chemical Engineering, Water and Resources Recovery Lab), with Dr Stephen Mandale as academic co-investigator.
Why this matters for the industry
Most of BIOVIT's ingredients are currently manufactured from tropically grown plants. Circular Vitamin C is an important step towards sustainable, domestic production of natural vitamin alternatives - building a range of natural vitamin extracts produced wholly within Wales, and supporting BIOVIT's transition to carbon-neutral, circular manufacture. The project is one of several BIOVIT initiatives backed by a combined £2.7m in R&D funding from Innovate UK and the Welsh Government.
What's next
Extraction development continues, led by the Swansea University team, alongside exploration of a further circular opportunity: giving apple juice producers the chance to fortify their own juices with vitamins extracted from their own waste.
