More than taste alone
This blog is a personal reflection of one of the Consumer judges for the 2024 New Zealand Food Awards.
For any food enthusiast, spending the day tasting a wide range of New Zealand’s best food and beverages is a dream come true.
I was lucky enough to do just that as a consumer judge for the New Zealand Food Awards.
The 2024 consumer judges tasting beverages.
The New Zealand Food Awards, owned and operated by Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa Massey University for over 35 years, enables food and beverage producers to showcase their latest and greatest innovations, celebrating the people and mahi behind a product or business journey.
These awards are one of New Zealand’s most comprehensive food awards. While taste is key, it is not the only factor that dictates who will reign supreme. All entries go through three judging rounds - excellence, innovation and sustainability. Each area is coupled with relevant experts ensuring the finalists measure up to a rigorous criterion.
Judging excellence
The second of three judging days, held at Massey University’s Innovation Complex on the Ōtehā Auckland campus, began with an introduction by head judge, Kay McMath, who has been judging these awards for an impressive 14 years.
The tastings were facilitated by previous Massey University Food Technology students who prepared the 149 different products that were up for judging.
Working alongside McMath were 7 of the 25 industry judges, including chefs, nutritionists, media, and retail representatives, and four consumer judges.
As the mother of two children and the main household shopper, I was the consumer judge representing families. There were also consumer judges representing other characteristics, such as shopping for one person and with no budget in mind, and shopping for a specific medical requirement.
First on the table for judging were items categorised as pantry FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods) products – specifically, baked goods, condiments, snacks and confectionery. This was an enjoyable way to start the day! With 65 items to taste in this category alone, I quickly learned to only take small bites of the food, no matter how moreish they were.
The judging process involved more than just my tastebuds. When rating a product, I was asked to consider the sensory appeal of the product, the suitability of it for a family, the portion size and the shelf-life of the food.
After we completed a blind tasting of the products, we got to see the packaging, which helped me gather the additional information I needed to determine whether or not I would buy it – things such as the price, packet size and nutritional information.
Head judge, Kay McMath explains the weighting of the judging components.
For example, some of the pantry items, while incredibly tasty, contained whole nuts, meaning they would be off the menu for my young children as they are a choking hazard.
Once I had weighed up all these factors, I scored the food out of 40. Surprisingly, this was more difficult than I thought it would be as I wasn’t just judging on taste alone but the multitude of things that impact my buying decisions.
Next up on the agenda was the beverage category. The 39 entries ranged from coffee and tea, to juice, energy drinks, and mocktails. I had certainly never mixed these drinks before!
Following a lunch break, we were back to our tables to complete the two final tasting categories: chilled foods and frozen foods.
As a lover of cheese, the chilled foods section was the most enjoyable for me, with some truly remarkable products on offer.
Once all the products had been judged, we reconvened to assess who were the top performers in each category based on the cumulative scores from all of the judges.
McMath reminded us that the top-ranked products from our judging day may not all be the same ones that are named as the finalists. Excellence accounts for just 40 per cent of their overall score. In addition to being judged for innovation and sustainability, each product also had to be compliance checked for their labels, premises and social media.
This has made me even more eager to see who will be crowned the winners at the New Zealand Food Awards gala dinner in Auckland on 10 October.
After seeing the rigorous judging process, I know that the finalists and winners who get to display the NZ Food Awards Quality Mark on their product will truly be deserving of the accolade.
