Young Entrepreneurs going head to head at the Norwich Business School at the UEA. Judge Mark Hibbitts talking to Norwich School pupil Lasith Ranasinghe about their Gekko brand .

Businesses set up by Norfolk teenagers were recognised at the Young Enterprise business awards held at the University of East Anglia.

The Norfolk area final saw schools including Wymondham High, City of Norwich School, Ormiston Victory Academy and Thorpe St Andrew School competing for the title of “company of the year”.

Teams of between 10 and 20 year 12 pupils have been trading since October 2012 with businesses including Food Safe, a smart phone app that tells people when their food is about to go out of date, and Y-Drive, a USB stick pre-loaded with software to sync, back up and restore files on computers and memory sticks.

At the UEA’s Norwich Business School, the students, who had produced a 10-page company report, faced questions from judges and gave a presentation about their venture.

The winners were: Food Safe (Norwich School), business award and best green/environmentally aware; Younique (Wymondham College), business award runners-up and product development; Beacon (Wymondham College), best financial; Gekko (Norwich School), communications; Signed Design (Norwich School), customer focus; Platford (CNS), spirit of enterprise; Bright Knight (Thorpe St Andrew School), company overcoming adversity.

This year Young Enterprise will work with more than 2,000 students and 140 volunteers across Norfolk and Suffolk.

More than 400 of those students have set up and are running 35 businesses providing a range of products and services.