An interschool project that created a 100% carrot-based sweetener has placed second at the national Young Enterprise Scheme (YES) finals.
The sweetener, which can be used in coffee, baking, smoothies or anywhere else sugar is used, is created from a by-product.
Seadown Road, made up of five year 13 students from Timaru Boys’ High School (TBHS) and one year 13 student from Timaru Girls’ High School, came first in the South Canterbury regionals in October.
After coming second in the national competition the team was awarded $2000 from YES;, as well as an additional $1000 for their school.
Seadown Road member Alana Berry-Rankin said all of the students came from a farming background and they all wanted to give back to that.
She said they had been helped along by the TBHS old boys network, along with Regan Powell from the Young Enterprise Scheme, who she said had been a key supporter.
She said carrots had one of the highest sugar contents of all vegetables.
The vegetable’s sugar — which was previously extracted from carrot juice and shipped off as a byproduct — had been repurposed into Seadown Road’s Rejuiced.
The sweetener had a sustainable edge as there were lower carbon miles involved in making it.
The group had tried to ensure everything from packaging to labelling was sourced locally, and the carrots used in their product came from farms in the South Canterbury region.
Alana said it had been an ‘‘incredible experience’’.
More than 1200 teams had competed in this year’s YES.
The top 30 were selected to pitch at nationals.
To have placed second from such a large number had been ‘‘pretty exciting’’.
Their sugar alternative was for sale in family sized and business sized containers on their website seadownroad.company.site
