From the Pie Awards to the Champions of Cheese to the Great Sausage Competition and the Ice Cream and Gelato Awards. If you can eat (or drink) it, someone has invented an award for it. Kim Knight started counting all those tiny medal stickers
Food awards: What do the medal stickers on NZ groceries really mean?
If you can eat (or drink) it, someone has invented an award for it. Kim Knight started counting all those tiny medal stickers and asks who benefits most from these accolades. Photo / Michael Craig
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.
“Any noise about the food and drink story, anything that lifts up and shines a light on our artisan producers, our chefs, our restaurants, our winemakers, is great,” says Kelli Brett, Cuisine magazine editor.
“I’m on the fence. Fifty per cent of me is going ‘it’s really great that people are talking’ and everybody loves a nice shiny sticker. But, on the other hand, what’s the criteria? What’s the process?”
Good question. Because a deep dive into a handful of the country’s most prominent food awards reveals a wildly varied playing field. In some competitions, up to three-quarters of entries take home an accolade; in others, only 2 per cent get to the podium. Some take multiple days to judge; others are decided in a few hours by a panel that inevitably features a celebrity face for media cut-through.
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.
The risk, says Brett, is that giving out too many awards devalues the concept completely.
“It makes it feel like the school carnival where everyone gets a ribbon.”
Consider these results from the most recent rounds of a variety of food awards that routinely hit the New Zealand Herald’s inbox:
- Champions of Cheese Awards: 253 products; 187 medals (74 per cent of entries)
- Outstanding Food Producer Awards: 355 products; 261 medals (73.5 per cent)
- Inspire + NZ Artisan Awards: 800+ products; 524 medals (65.5 per cent)
- Ice Cream & Gelato Awards: 272 products; 183 medals (67 per cent)
- Vegan Sausage Awards: 57 products; 17 awards (30 per cent)
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.
- Vegan Chocolate Awards: 80 products; 18 awards (22.5 per cent)
- Great New Zealand Sausage Competition: 646 products; 114 awards (17.6 per cent)
- New Zealand Food Awards: 400 entries; 61 finalists (15 per cent)
- Bakels New Zealand Supreme Pie Awards: 2082 products; 45 awards (2 per cent)
By anyone’s maths, that’s a lot of awards. But wait, there is definitely more. While most of these events are held annually, their various accolade stickers can have a far longer lifespan.
Finalists in Massey University’s long-running New Zealand Food Awards, for example, receive a Quality Mark dated with the year of its receipt. That mark can be worn in perpetuity, so long as the product formulation (including ingredients) and manufacturing process (including location) don’t substantially change.
Researching results from 35-plus years back was a big ask. Our request for figures from the past three years showed 190 products or businesses became eligible to display a finalist Quality Mark; of those, 33 could carry an additional “winner” label and a further three — including the most recent recipient, Heilala Vanilla, are eligible to boast their “supreme winner” status. (Cuisine sponsors the award’s Artisan category, and its finalists can carry an extra sticker recognising this).
The standalone (and free to enter) NZ Artisan Awards also offer a date-stamped sticker that can be displayed for as long as the winning producers’ wish. Established in 2008 by SupermarketNews, in partnership with sister publication Restaurant & Cafe Magazine, these awards initially only recognised category winners and runners up. Two years ago, in response to increasing entry numbers, the judging system changed. Products are now scored against set criteria with no limit to the number of golds, silvers, or bronzes that can be awarded to those who make the respective grade - we counted 1158 medal allocations since 2022.
Three other prominent local food awards - Outstanding Food Producer, Champions of Cheese and Ice Cream & Gelato (all owned or organised by the same company, Marvellous Marketing) allow medallists to display their accolades for three consecutive years. Currently, 1660 gold, bronze or silver stickers are eligible for use.
In short: Across just five different food awards, more than 3000 medal or quality mark stickers could currently be in circulation.
This is not a comprehensive figure. It doesn’t include the vegan, sausage or pie results referenced earlier. We didn’t consult the organisers of the country’s speciality olive oil, sustainable seafood, bacon or [insert your favourite niche product here] awards.
We did intend to take a look at liquor specific awards. (Who hasn’t brought that bottle of wine to a dinner party - the one we’ve never tasted but is slapped with so many stickers we feel like a winner by proxy?). According to one expert, “there are at least 13 regular wine shows or competitions in New Zealand, reflecting the importance of the awards model to help consumers buy with confidence”. And if you, like us, have ever wondered why Speight’s Gold Medal Ale is called Speight’s Gold Medal Ale, the answer is right there on the company website. Turns out a Speight’s ale went to an exhibition in Melbourne and won two gold medals. In 1880.
Kay McMath has been judging food awards for at least two decades. The sensory scientist and current head judge of Massey’s New Zealand Food Awards says the most notable change is the increasing number of awards available to producers. But she also wonders if the purpose of these competitions has changed - and how the consumer navigates a crowded field.
“Many were initiated by producer associations as a way of objectively benchmarking products to ensure progressive improvement in quality across their sector. I’m not sure this is the objective of many of the awards available to food producers today.
“Without knowing the terms and conditions of entry, the judging and scoring process – it is difficult for the consumer to objectively distinguish the quality between the various awards.”
Read the fine print and discover some competitions are judged blind and others aren’t. Some are weighted more heavily for sustainability, others for innovation. There may or may not be a consumer choice component or a celebrity judge. Entry fees range from zero to $209 depending on the award or whether the producer is a member of an industry association. And, as already noted, result models run from simple winner/runner-up lists to the point-scoring systems that result in hundreds of products becoming eligible to display medals.
(It’s important to note that while we counted at least 3000 recently awarded medals or quality marks, it does not automatically follow that 3000 separate products carry these stickers. Some producers enter and win medals for the same product in multiple competitions; others who are eligible to display multiple stickers may choose to adorn their product with only its highest accolade).
You might think that if any competition was going to compare apples with apples it would be a food award. But the broad-spectrum nature of the country’s biggest events means a dill pickle potato crisp will be considered alongside a hazelnut shortbread or a fresh finger lime (among the 59 golds in the “earth” section of this year’s Outstanding Food Producer Awards). And a frozen fish pie will be scored alongside a four-pack of pain aux raisin or a peanut butter-flavoured ice cream for dogs (among the 26 silvers from the “frozen” category of last year’s NZ Artisan Awards).
“Did they get a dog in and it wagged its tail?”
That was a judge from one award commenting on a judgment from another. It was an off-the-cuff and unattributable comment. Because while there are thousands of medal stickers in circulation, the pool of people who decide how to award them is relatively small — Aotearoa is a village and eventually everyone ends up at the same dinner (and judging) tables.
Lauraine Jacobs, head judge for the Outstanding Food Producer Awards, has no issue with the 73.5 per cent medal success rate achieved by this year’s entrants. Products were assessed by a panel of 25 and those that scored more than 86 points achieved at least a bronze. Gold medals went to those on 95 points or higher and the supreme winner was Mind Your Temper’s Black Forest Bonbon - a plant-based chocolate made with coconut milk.
“Let’s face it — nobody ever intends to put something on the market that they didn’t think was wonderful,” says Jacobs.
“What we concentrated on was actually putting outstanding New Zealand producers on a pedestal and bringing them to the attention of people. Now, of course, their problem is how do they get those products into the supermarket? Can they? Will they ever?”
In her head judge’s speech, Jacobs highlighted what she saw as some of the difficulties facing food producers.
“The duopoly of a supermarket system that predominates the New Zealand scene doesn’t or won’t help far too often, and the centralised distribution system for the most part ignores local, artisanal and even seasonal food.
“Online marketing of fresh food is not ideal for many consumers, nor does it suit the complexity of distribution in a country where the population often lives in far-flung regional places . . . those little stickers you have been awarded are very reassuring for consumers, if they’re lucky enough to find them in the supermarket aisles.”
Jacobs says a medal win can be the boost someone needs to grow a business.
“If you’re a woman in Central Otago making a pinot and blackcurrant jelly and we gave it a gold — that’s going to be so good for you. Even if you’re only selling it at the farmers’ market. Now you’ve got this accolade and you can say to somebody, ‘you should be stocking this in your local store’.”
The Outstanding Food Producer Awards (OFPA) are owned by Marvellous Marketing’s Kathie Bartley and Nicola McConnell. The pair also run the country’s cheese and ice cream awards on behalf of industry associations and have previously organised the New Zealand Chocolate Awards (now wrapped into the OFPA).
“We encourage producers to enter their best products, which is why the quality benchmark is set so high,” said Bartley. “Commodity producers don’t enter unless they have a top-notch product they want feedback on. This year 94 products did not win an award in OFPA, which is a large number of disappointed producers.”
Bartley said independent third-party endorsement gives products credibility, “which gives consumers confidence to purchase — particularly important for more expensive artisan products or ingredients”.
Tania Walters, who organises the annual NZ Artisan Awards, says smaller-scale producers need help gaining visibility and recognition “in an environment dominated by a supermarket duopoly with data-dominated ranging criteria . . . one of the reasons we run the awards is to profile to category buyers, supermarket operators, chefs, restaurateurs, Quick Service Restaurants and other food retailers what new products are available”.
Free to enter, the supreme winner (Epic Coffee in 2023) also takes home a $50,000 marketing package.
Are there too many food awards? Or, at least, too many food award stickers?
Walters says the ranking system that results in numerous medals is the most commonly used judging method when a range of product types is to be considered.
“New Zealand has many award programmes, from artisanal to wine awards, ice cream to pie awards. They may all have different criteria, but they all stand out for their comprehensive approach to recognising excellence across diverse product categories.”
“I don’t believe that any awards have an ‘everyone’s a winner’ ethos. Awards are set up to encourage and provide a platform for recognition.”
The newest awards on the foodie (chopping) block are organised by the Vegan Society of Aotearoa New Zealand. They began back in 2018, explains spokeswoman Claire Insley, in response to a concern raised by Auckland’s Tart Bakery. It wanted to enter the Bakel’s pie awards but was only eligible for its vegetarian section.
“We want to showcase the excellence in vegan food product making . . . to create a level playing field for vegan products. It would be hard for a vegan mince and cheese pie to compete with an animal-based mince and cheese pie. The two are entirely different.”
Jasbir Kaur (aka “Chef Jazz”) is a key judge across the society’s various cheese, chocolate, sausage, pie and dairy-free awards, which all operate under a winner/runner-up system.
“I recently got a message from someone saying, ‘What’s the point in entering — I didn’t get anything’ . . . we want people to trust when we say this person, or this pie or this thing is pretty good. And it’s important to me that we also offer feedback. They need to know why and where they can do better.”
Kaur, vice-president of the NZ Chef Association Auckland, says technical expertise is crucial to a food judging panel (vegan mozzarella, for example, will never have the same texture as its dairy counterpart and a non-expert might not understand that) — but she also likes to include a consumer voice.
“Absolutely, consumers are influenced by awards. ‘Oh, it’s got stickers, it’s probably good’. When I wear that judging jacket, I feel that responsibility. From a consumer point of view, I would say ‘go support the winners’. And, actually, support the non-winners as well — create your own palate.”
Kim Knight is an award-winning lifestyle journalist with a Master’s degree in Gastronomy from AUT. In 2023, she was named among New Zealand’s inaugural Top 50 Most Influential and Inspiring Women in Food and Drink.
