About
The Good Food Awards rely on the expertise of the drinks 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 standards are and who will be judging this year.
Committee
ChairAnand Upender
Owner, York Street Collective
Anand has been creating food & drink experiences since he could hold a paring knife and design a menu. He got his start as a cook in fine dining restaurants, moonlighting as a supper club host fueled by his own Indian American-inspired dishes. For the past four years, he’s run York Street Collective, a community-based beverage popup in San Francisco. They’ve collaborated with hundreds of small businesses across the bay and served thousands of drinks, from their popular forest latte to their funky watermelon & brie mocktail.
2026 Judges
Clare Apps
Consultant, Taste Eat Drink
Gabrielle Santa-Donato
Head of Learning and Development, Headway
Ariell Ilunga
Founder, Carla's Fresh Market
Angel Davis
Owner, Millay
Celia Sack
Owner, Omnivore Books
Sandeep Pahuja
Founder, Preferred Futures
Donna del Rey
Owner, Relish Culinary Adventures
Standards
In order to be eligible for a Good Food Award, drinks entries must meet the following standards:
- Made with a balanced objective of local, organic and highest-quality.
- Free of genetically modified ingredients (including GM beet sugar and vinegar derived from GM corn).
- Sweeteners must be organic or Fair Trade certified.*
- Free of artificial ingredients, including colors, flavors and preservatives including lecithin, carrageenan, gums and artificial thickeners. Free of natural flavorings and colors.
- Free of high fructose corn syrup.
- If made with fruits, vegetables or nuts, they are grown without the use of synthetic herbicides, pesticides, fungicides or fertilizers.
- All spices and herbs must be certified organic, Fair Trade or traceable to the farm level and grown without the use of synthetic inputs.***
- Dairy products must be made with milk from animals raised using good animal husbandry**** with access to the outdoors. Made without hormones, sub-therapeutic antibiotics and rBGH-free.
- Made in the USA or US territories.
- 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:
- Creating a safe and healthy work environment where employees receive a fair wage, are safe and respected at work and have access to the resources they need to keep themselves healthy.
- 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.
- If your company is Publicly-held, Owned/Partially-owned by publicly-held compan(y)ies, or has over $100 million in annual revenue, your company, as well as its parent company(ies), are required to meet additional criteria to become Good Food Qualified:
- Offer a minimum of 12 weeks of paid parental leave to all employees
- Have at least one woman, minority, or LGBTQIA+ representative on their Board of Directors
- Have a proven track record of prioritizing a safe and fairly-compensated work culture, with no violations in the area of wage or workplace safety in the past 5 years. This will be verified on the Good Jobs First Violation Tracker
**IPM practices will be considered on a case-by-case basis.
***If less than 2% of ingredients in the product do not meet this stipulation, the entry will not be disqualified.
****SFA will refer to GAP Level 5 guidelines to define “good animal husbandry” should there be any questions as to eligibility based on this criterion.
Subcategories
Additionally, drinks entries must fit within one of the following subcategories:
- Kombucha, kvass & kefir
- Brewed coffee (e.g., cold brew coffee, mocha, latte)
- Tonics, soda & sparkling beverages
- Smoothies & juices
- Milk & yogurt drinks (e.g., lassi, chocolate milk)
- Milk alternatives (e.g., oat milk, almond milk)
- CBD & adaptogen drinks
- Hot mixes (e.g., must add hot water or milk) Bean to bar makers may submit drinking chocolate in chocolate category