Sweeten your day with...

Confections

Our focus is on celebrating confections – whether chocolate covered bon bons or gloriously simple caramels – produced using locally grown, natural, minimally processed ingredients that celebrate regional culture and tradition, highlight American terroir and exemplify excellence in the candy making craft.

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

Co-Chairs

Leah Hammerman

Assistant to the President at Community Grains

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, working/living on a biodynamic farm, and she now wears many hats with Community Grains. 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.

Christina Skonberg

Sustainability Manager at General Mills

Christina sits on the Global Social Impact Team at General Mills, where she leads company-wide regenerative agriculture initiatives. Prior to joining General Mills, Christina worked with the Good Food Foundation and SCS Global Services, where she coordinated the Starbucks responsible coffee sourcing verification program in Latin America, Asia, and Africa.
Christina holds undergraduate degrees in Agricultural Science and Brazilian Studies from Brown University, and a Master of Science in Agriculture, Food, and Environment from the Friedman School at Tufts University.

Committee Members

Anna Lee, Operations Manager, Lazy Bear
Amanda Rosenberg
Michelle Ticknor
Carly Grob

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.