Amid the thousands, if not millions, of SKUs that were on show at Anuga 2011, how ironic that a South African product should rank as my "Best New Product of Anuga 2011". Taking as an objective a viewpoint as I could, and selecting it from among all the novel, new and different that I happened upon during my five days of trawling the show (you simply can never see all of Anuga), my award goes to...

Port Elizabeth's Dynamic Commodities (DC) does it again! No stranger to innovation and international NPD awards, it came up trumps at Anuga 2011, using the expo to debut a great new concept to the global marketplace.

The product is So:Shi, fruity sushi sorbet, a concept which combines the company's expertise in top-notch sorbet and fruit preparations.

With So:Shi, DC has devised a new and ingenious approach to sorbet, based on the concept of sushi, the globally popular Japanese delicacy, but in this instance it's not rice and fish, but a melt-in-your-mouth dessert.

So:Shi consists of luxury dessert sorbet which starts as a pasteurised base mix, and to which fruit juice concentrates and natural flavours are added. The frozen sorbet is extruded and prepared into a “tube” with a luxurious centre filling consisting of fruit pulp or other suitable product. Wrapped in wafer paper, the tube is then squared into the traditional sushi shape.

So:Shi attracted volumes of interest at Anuga: here DC's Manie Maritz (right), the company's founder and chief innovator, tells an American visitor, James Amakasu, about the product.

The final product contains only natural flavours and colourants, with no added preservatives.

Three flavour variants are currently available: fresh pomegranate lemon with a strawberry confection centre; apple with a creamy caramel centre; and lemon with mixed berry centre. Three rolls of each flavour are supplied per pack unit.

It's novel, premium, loaded with eye and appetite appeal, links into the universal and trendy craze for sushi, and tastes simply delicious!

While DC is an export-focused business, it says So:Shi will be available in SA in the near future to coincide with summer.

See a video on the product here: http://www.dynamicfood.com/media