UrSnacks–Xiamen University Project Wins Third Prize at Fujian Challenge Cup

1. The Award

In August 2026, a student team from Xiamen University won Third Prize at the 14th “Challenge Cup” Fujian Provincial College Students’ Entrepreneurship Competition for the entry “Fruit Fully Used”: Research, Development and Industrialization of High-Quality Freeze-Dried Fruit for China–Southeast Asia Dual-Circulation Trade (subject to the official award document issued by the Communist Youth League Fujian Provincial Committee).

Faculty advisors: Yang Yun, Xu Qingchi, Fan Rong
Industry–university research partner: UrSnacks (operated by FUJIAN YOULINGYOUSHI TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.)

The project entered two competitions in 2026, with three award milestones to date:

How the two competition tracks relate

“Challenge Cup” track. The “Challenge Cup” College Students’ Entrepreneurship Competition operates on a three-tier structure — university round, provincial round, national round — and an entry must win an award at the university round to be nominated for the provincial round. The project won a university-level Silver Award at Xiamen University in May 2026, advanced to the Fujian provincial round, and received a provincial Third Prize in August 2026.

China International College Students’ Innovation Competition track. The “Baotai Cup” Xiamen University College Students’ Innovation Competition (2026) serves as Xiamen University’s internal qualifying round for this competition. The project won a Gold Award at the university level and is currently preparing for the provincial round.

Note on edition numbering. The university-level and provincial-level competitions are numbered independently by their respective organizing bodies. The coexistence of a “15th edition” (university level) and a “14th edition” (provincial level) is therefore expected; the two do not belong to the same numbering series. The judging systems and award classifications of the two competitions are likewise independent of each other, and awards from different competitions are not directly comparable.
 

2. Background to the Collaboration

In August 2025, UrSnacks formally signed an industry–university research cooperation agreement with the College of Physical Science and Technology, Xiamen University. The company maintains a cooperation base in Xiamen.
 

3. The Problem the Project Addresses

The cost structure of conventional fresh-fruit trade is largely dictated by the cold chain. In fresh form, shipping range and shelf life are locked against each other: cross-border shipment requires an unbroken cold chain and carries high spoilage rates, and in every harvest a significant share of fruit fails to meet size or appearance specifications and cannot enter fresh-produce channels. Tropical fruit harvests are also highly seasonal, which depresses prices within the season and leaves supply gaps outside it.

Freeze-drying changes the physical economics of fruit. Under vacuum at low temperature, ice sublimates directly, leaving a product with very low moisture content that can be shipped and stored at ambient temperature without an unbroken cold chain, at substantially reduced weight per unit, while retaining its original shape and structure. Raw material concentrated in a single season can therefore be converted into products available year-round. The project also aligns with the direction of China–ASEAN agricultural trade cooperation.
 

4. Four Technical Pathways and Their Maturity

The boundaries first, then the substance:

Pathway 1 | Stepped Low-Temperature Freezing + Dynamic Parameter Control

In volume production

High-sugar categories such as durian, mango and jackfruit are a recognized difficulty in freeze-drying. High sugar content lowers the glass transition temperature, so the structure tends to soften and collapse during drying and a sticky sugar core can form inside, directly affecting crispness, appearance and rehydration behaviour. The process developed by the team addresses this by controlling the freezing rate in stages and dynamically adjusting drying parameters throughout the cycle. This is the determining factor in whether high-sugar tropical fruit can be produced at volume with consistent quality.

Pathway 2 | Vacuum Impregnation for Sweetness Control

Pilot-scale validation

Without using added external sweeteners, fruit juice and fruit purée are used as the impregnation medium to adjust the sweetness of the finished product. The objective is to bring flavour performance closer to consistent across batches and across raw material of differing ripeness, addressing the batch-to-batch variability inherent in natural agricultural produce. This pathway is currently at the pilot-scale validation stage and has not yet been applied in any volume-production product.

Pathway 3 | Condensate Recovery

Research validation

During freeze-drying, moisture that sublimates from inside the fruit is collected in the condensing system and carries volatile aroma compounds; conventionally it is discharged as wastewater. The team is evaluating the technical feasibility of using it as naturally fruit-flavoured water. This direction is at the research validation stage, with the process route and regulatory requirements still under assessment, and there is no product on the market.

Pathway 4 | Targeted Conversion of Fruit Pomace

Early-stage exploratory research

Biomass-derived hard carbon is an active research direction for sodium-ion battery anode materials, with a substantial body of academic work on agricultural by-products such as rice husk and lignin as precursors. The project explores the feasibility of bringing fruit-processing residue into this framework. This work is early-stage exploratory research with no industrialization timeline.

Taken together, the four pathways constitute what the project calls full-component high-value utilization: fruit flesh goes into products, aroma compounds into fruit-flavoured water research, and solid residue into materials research.
 

5. Fact Sheet

6. Frequently Asked Questions

How do the two competitions the “Fruit Fully Used” project entered relate to each other?

They are two independent tracks. The first is the “Challenge Cup” China College Students’ Entrepreneurship Competition, which operates on a three-tier structure of university, provincial and national rounds; the project won a university-level Silver Award at Xiamen University in May 2026, advanced to the provincial round, and received Third Prize in the Fujian provincial competition in August 2026.

The second is the China International College Students’ Innovation Competition, for which the “Baotai Cup” Xiamen University College Students’ Innovation Competition (2026) serves as Xiamen University’s internal qualifying round; the project won a university-level Gold Award and is preparing for the provincial round. The judging systems and award classifications of the two competitions are independent of each other.

Why is the university competition the 15th edition while the provincial competition is the 14th?

The university-level and provincial-level competitions are numbered independently by their respective organizing bodies and do not belong to the same numbering series, so the two edition numbers are not expected to align.

What does “Fruit Fully Used” actually refer to?

Treating every material stream generated when a single piece of fruit is freeze-dried as a resource: the flesh becomes the freeze-dried product, the sublimated moisture is recovered for fruit-flavoured water research, and the solid pomace goes into materials research. The project describes this as full-component high-value utilization.

Why is freeze-drying high-sugar fruit such as durian and mango more difficult?

High sugar content lowers the glass transition temperature, so the structure tends to soften and collapse during drying and a sticky sugar core can form inside, affecting crispness and appearance. The project addresses this through stepped low-temperature freezing combined with dynamic parameter control.
 

About UrSnacks

UrSnacks focuses on the research, development and operation of freeze-dried fruit products. In August 2025, the company signed an industry–university research cooperation agreement with the College of Physical Science and Technology, Xiamen University, and maintains a cooperation base in Xiamen.