Chinese dairy giant the Yili Group won four major awards – Best Ice Cream, Best Artisan Product, Best CSR/Sustainability Initiative and Best Intolerance-friendly Innovation – at the 2025 World Dairy Innovation Awards during the 18th Global Dairy Congress, held on June 18 in the Netherlands.

Situ Wenyou (right), assistant to the president of Yili Group and Carolien van Loo (left), head of the Yili European Innovation Center, attend the awards ceremony. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

The company – which is based in Hohhot, capital of North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region – also received six commendations, with winning products covering multiple categories including liquid milk, ice cream, milk powder and cream.

Yili ranked first globally in a total number of awards received, and it has now won honors at the World Dairy Innovation Awards for six consecutive years.

Its product Joyday Crunchy Choco Lava received the award for Best Ice Cream. It combines five different chocolate textures to deliver a rich and multi-layered taste experience, redefining chocolate ice cream in the Southeast Asian market.

Joyday, launched by Yili in Indonesia in 2018, became the company's first overseas brand to win this international recognition.

Also, Yili's Patented Multi-Enzymatic Lactose-to-GOS Technology: Boosting Gut Health in Qinghuo Adult Milk Powder won Best Intolerance-friendly Innovation.

Zhenlao Light Cream won Best Artisan Product, while Satine Carbon-Reduced Organic Milk won Best CSR/Sustainability Initiative.

A triumphant Yili scoops up four World Dairy Innovation Awards. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

The World Dairy Innovation Awards are organized by international food industry media group FoodBev Media. They're widely recognized as one of the most important innovation awards in the global dairy industry.

This year's competition was particularly hard-fought, with 177 nominated products and projects across 20 major categories. Overall, Yili is said to have really stood out as a leading innovator in the global dairy sector.