Malaysian beverage bags nine awards

MALAYSIAN-MADE beverage Oat King Sport won not one, but a whopping nine international awards in 2023.

The slew of honours for the flagship product of TG Ocean Health Food Industries Sdn Bhd came from three events in three successive months and were testament to its global appeal.

Competing against hundreds of other products, it won a Gold Award at the 12th World Invention Creativity Olympic (WICO 2023) in Seoul, South Korea in July.

It also received the Turkish Inventors’ Association Special Award and the World Invention Intellectual Property Associations Special Award at the same event.

During the International Innovation and Invention Expo 2023 in Georgia, the United States in August, it claimed a Gold Medal alongside the Inventors’ Circle’s Canadian Special Award of Excellence and Macao Innovation and Invention Association’s Leading Innovation Award.Tan says the awards prove that Malaysian brands can rival any on the world stage.

At the 4th American Davinci International Innovation and Invention Expo in Utah, there was another Gold Medal as well as two Special Awards by the Organisation for Creativity, Innovation and Invention Promotion and Association of Thai Innovation and Invention Promotion.

TG Ocean managing director Datuk Ong Thor Guan said the accolades proved that Oat King Sport was internationally recognised as a reliable, premium health food brand.

“They are testament to our unwavering dedication to innovation and delivering wholesome food choices.

“It also shines a spotlight on the strength of Malaysian brands on the global stage.

“At TG Ocean, we firmly believe that health is the cornerstone of wealth and remain committed to assisting individuals in achieving their goals for a healthy lifestyle through the provision of high-quality products,” Ong said during a press conference in Penang.

The latest successes followed Oat King Sport’s notable achievement at the 7th Canadian International Invention Innovation Competition (iCAN 2022) where it won four awards, including a Gold Medal in the Agriculture and Food Category, as well as two special awards from the Toronto International Society of Innovation and Advanced Skills and Inventors’ Circle.

Coming up against other gold winners from different categories, it also won the overall grand prize.

Penang Chinese Town Hall honorary chairman Tan Sri Tan Khoon Hai said TG Ocean’s multiple awards showed that Malaysian brands could compete with the world’s best.

“People have become more health-conscious in the post-Covid-19 pandemic era.

“But when shopping for products, many have the misconception that foreign goods are better than local ones.

“These nine international awards, coupled with the earlier human clinical studies conducted by Universiti Sains Malaysia, will surely change consumer mindsets towards local health products and prove once and for all, that made-in-Malaysia items can rival the world’s best,” Tan said in his speech.

He was referring to USM’s 18-month study done from early 2020.

Principal investigator Dr Lee Lai Kuan reiterated some of her findings during the event.

Also present were TG Ocean’s administrative director Koay Kai Bin, executive director Choong Jin Kooi and legal consultant Lim Choo Hooi, as well as USM Assoc Prof Dr Foo Keng Yuen.