Baxters of Speyside have confirmed Forres Academy won the annual interschool soup challenge, organised with DYW Moray

A local team of teenagers reign soupreme following their regional challenge win.

Forres Academy S2 pupils Ayla Santos Willmott, Jessica Gaynor and Sophie Dey won the annual Baxters Soup interschool Challenge, organised in partnership with DYW (Developing the Young Workforce) Moray.

Ayla said: “We were grateful for the chance to participate. We are all still smiling!”

Pupils were tasked with creating a new soup offering health benefits and using local produce.

In addition to coming up with the recipe and making the new product, the teams were also required to put together a presentation demonstrating their overall approach, including pricing, packaging, labelling and marketing.

The Forres team’s healthy ‘Souper Greens’ soup consists of a blend of peas, kale, spinach and broccoli stem, along with leek and potato. The culinary creation was accompanied by a fun promotional video conveying the soup’s goodness and benefits.

“We understood from the Baxters brief they were looking for a healthy soup to complement their healthy initiative range,” explained Jessica. “Keeping fit and eating healthily ourselves, we knew what we wanted.

“Having worked hard on our advertisement and presentation, and come across strong on the day, we still felt lucky to come out as a souper final winners!”

Sophie confirmed her team is looking forward to visiting Baxters to see their soup being made on a large scale.

She added: “The real prize is being able to give back to our school and being able to represent Forres Academy.

“Our school will receive 2000 cans of our Souper Green Soup which we hope we can tempt pupils, teachers, parents and the community to try!”

Head judge and European supply chain director at Baxters, Graeme Morrison, explained that the annual contest offers young people an opportunity to take part in an enterprise initiative covering aspects of the school curriculum, whilst learning about careers in the food manufacturing sector.

He said: “Selecting a winner was a challenge for the judges. Congratulations to Ayla, Jessica and Sophie on their winning soup and to all the finalists for their inspiring efforts and enthusiasm for the competition.

“We hope it has given them a real flavour for just how varied and interesting working with food can be!”

Teams from Elgin Academy, Lossiemouth High School, Milne’s High School and Speyside High School also took part this year.

Mr Morrison finished: “Every year we are blown away by the creativity and innovation shown by the local young people taking part in the Soup Challenge. They never fail to impress and this year was no exception.”