increase font size
Entries are now open for the New Zealand Food Awards, providing food, and beverage producers with the opportunity to highlight their products and businesses.
The event, organised in association with Massey University, gives producers of all sizes a platform in which grow their brands and business, while receiving feedback from an expert judging panel and benchmark themselves against others in the industry.
Winners are also eligible to use the NZ Food Awards “Quality Mark”, which can help boost sales and distribution locally and overseas.
Massey University vice-chancellor Steve Maharey says the annual awards programme celebrates new initiatives for food and beverage manufacturing in nutrition, enterprise, and food safety.
“The NZ Food Awards is a great opportunity for the companies and people contributing to the success of New Zealand’s food industry. It’s a chance to showcase innovation and excellence in an industry that makes up New Zealand’s largest export earner.”
Sealord Group took out the 2014 NZ Food Awards Massey University Supreme Award with its Hot Manuka Smoked Salmon. Sealord innovation manager Matt Mays says winning the award was recognition for the hard work put in by his team in bringing the product to life.
“We were up against some amazing products so we were stoked to win. This was a product we were really proud of so we wanted to see how it measured up against others in the industry. It was fantastic to see it come out on top and reap the benefits,” he says.
“Having access to the Quality Mark has been a great way of communicating the quality of this product to consumers. Any food or beverage manufacturer thinking of entering the competition should go for it – it’s worth it,” says Mays
The award categories are tailored to large and small producers. Large manufacturers are judged on sensory experience, packaging, innovation, manufacturing capability, food safety and research, and development. They can enter products in Beverages, Dry, Deli, Frozen, and Chilled/Short Shelf Life categories.
Small manufactures can enter products in the Convenience, Gourmet, and Indulgent categories, which are judged on technical excellence and consumer appeal. Awards are also available for health and wellness, novel ingredients, new cultivators/primary producers, food safety and quality and innovation.
Entries for the competition close on Friday July 10. For more information, please visit www.foodawards.co.nz.
Can discarded beef skins become premium dog food? Would camel milk work for your morning flat white? These are just two of the questions that will be answered next week at an international conference in Palmerston North.
Changing skill demands and new job opportunities in the primary sector have prompted Massey University to create a new degree course and add a significant major into another in 2025.
Always be on the lookout for new job opportunities and get outside your comfort zone.
She came all the way from a sheep station in Tasmania especially to be presented with the top prize in this year's Massey University agriculture, horticulture and environmental science award.
Massey University is tweaking the format of its agricultural courses.
Fonterra’s board has been reduced to nine - comprising six farmer-elected and three appointed directors.
Five hunting-related shootings this year is prompting a call to review firearm safety training for licencing.
The horticulture sector is a big winner from recent free trade deals sealed with the Gulf states, says Associate Agriculture Minister Nicola Grigg.
Fonterra shareholders are concerned with a further decline in the co-op’s share of milk collected in New Zealand.
A governance group has been formed, following extensive sector consultation, to implement the recommendations from the Industry Working Group's (IWG) final report and is said to be forming a 'road map' for improving New Zealand's animal genetic gain system.
Free workshops focused on managing risk in sharefarming got underway last week.
OPINION: Was the ASB Economic Weekly throwing shade on Reserve Bank governor Adrian Orr when reporting on his speech in…
OPINION: A reader recently had a shot at the various armchair critics that she judged to be more than a…
