About
The Good Food Awards rely on the expertise of the confections community to create the tasting, determine judges and set standards for the category. Read on to learn who has been integral to building the category, as well as what the confections standard are and who will be judging this year.
Committee
ChairLeah Hammerman
Cheetah, Category Merchandiser – Local & Specialty Products
Leah’s deep love for all things food began at a young age when she prepared weekly Shabbat dinners with her mom. An avid home cook, she still keeps up her Jewish cooking traditions, but now with beautiful California ingredients. Born in New York, Leah followed her nose and palate to the culinarily-bountiful Bay Area in 2017. Her career in the food industry has spanned managing restaurants, marketing F&B products and services, starting Dandelion Chocolate’s wholesale program (where she got her chocolate/confections cred), working on a biodynamic farm, and she now sources local & specialty products for Cheetah, a foodservice distributor. A theme of her diversified experiences is her considerable appreciation for and desire to promote quality foods and the people who grow/make them. A curious student of life, Leah’s motivated by learning and cultivating relationships with passionate food folks.
Standards
In order to be eligible for a Good Food Award, confections entries must meet the following standards:
- Made in the USA or US territories.
- Free of artificial ingredients, including colors, flavors and preservatives.
- Free of genetically modified ingredients.
- Free of high fructose corn syrup.
- Sugar must be Organic or Fair Trade certified or traceable to the farm level.*
- If made with chocolate, it must be premium couverture and may not be made with substitute fats as alternatives to cocoa butter. Additionally this chocolate cannot be made with GM sugar, GM lecithin or alternatives to real vanilla (ie flavoring).
- If made with dairy and other animal-derived ingredients, these are locally sourced and/or certified organic; free range; hormone-free; and from animals raised using good animal husbandry.**
- If made with inclusions and flavorings that are grown domestically, they are locally sourced wherever possible; traceable; and grown without the use of synthetic herbicides, pesticides, fungicides or fertilizers.***
- If made with inclusions and flavorings that are not grown domestically on a commercial scale, they are farm-direct, certified organic or Fair Trade certified.**
- Made by a crafter that is an upstanding member of the good food community, committed to equity and inclusion in all levels of their business,**** as exemplified through integrating these practices:
- Offering a diversity, equity, and inclusion training to staff members and/or leadership annually.
- Thoughtfully acknowledging the heritage of culturally-specific food on websites, packaging and/or marketing materials.
- For the small percentage of Good Food community that operates on a significantly larger scale, meeting additional criteria related to board diversity, maternity leave and employment practices.****
*Sugar traceable to the farm level will be evaluated on a case by case basis.
**The Good Food Foundation will refer to GAP Level 5 guidelines to define “good animal husbandry” should there be any questions as to eligibility based on this criterion.
***If less than 2% of ingredients in the product do not meet this stipulation, the entry will not be disqualified.
****Check if you are in the 2% of companies meeting the Good Food Foundation definition of large scale, and review the addition criteria on the Rules & Regulations page.
Subcategories
Additionally, confections entries must fit within one of the following subcategories:
- Candy (Gummies, Taffy, Lollipops, Licorice)
- Marshmallows, Nougats, Torrones
- Caramels, wrapped
- Caramels, chocolate covered
- Brittles & Toffees
- Chocolates: Truffles, Creams, Bon-bons, Pralines
- Fruit: Pate De Fruit, Candied Fruit and Peel, Fruit Gelee
- Sweet Snacks: Dragees
- Candy Bars
- Flavored & Inclusion Bars*
- Sauces & Spreads
*Bean-to-bar makers must enter flavored or inclusion bars in the Chocolate category.
Couverture
Note that we encourage but do not require that Confections entrants use domestically produced craft chocolate that is made with beans from a traceable source, purchased at a price above Fair Trade standard pricing, with focus on sustainable farming.
2022 Judges
Kika Arantes De Sousa
IncrediMeds, Operations Manager
Michael Zilber
Heidrun Meadery, Marketing Director
Nichole Accettola
Kantine, Chef Owner
Emmy Moore
McKinsey, Sr. Agricutulture Research Analyst
Krissy Scomegna
Boonville Barn Collective, Owner
Rebecca Crawbuck
Jane Hsieh-Fiore
BeCovet, Founder
Luis Villavelazquez
Les Elements, Pastry Chef and Consultant
Nina Luttinger
Product Development Consultant
Laurene Jeng
Imperfect Foods, Sustainability Team
Tamara Hicks
Tomales Farmstead Creamery, Owner
Emily Dellas
Chef, Educator, Culinary Consultant, First Class Cooking