About
The Good Food Awards rely on the expertise of the preserves 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 preserves standard are and who will be judging this year.
Committee
Co-ChairsHillary Lyons
Founder, Syntropy
Hillary Lyons is a former chef, food writer, and the founder of Syntropy, an agency that blends the best of human ingenuity & machine intelligence to create adaptive marketing systems for startups. She believes that mission-driven brands have the power to change the world — so long as they can bottle their vision and values into snackable stories their customers can rally around.
Jennifer Shawgo
VerdantPink, Principal
Jennifer brings a deep knowledge of grocery and food systems shaped by a career spanning natural products distribution and grocery technology. Raised in Sonoma County, California, she spent her early years raising livestock, studying viticulture, and working in fine dining – all of which cemented her belief that food is the center of community. That conviction has guided her work for over two decades: supporting grocery retailers as anchors of their neighborhoods and expanding access to good food at national scale. She has led industry engagement efforts with the Organic Trade Association and served as a member of the California State Organic Program (COPAC) under the CDFA, contributing to food policy efforts that championed organic and non-GMO practices. Currently based in San Francisco, Jennifer is focused on stewarding the responsible digitalization of the grocery industry while staying rooted in the values that first shaped her path.
2026 Judges
Edwin Southard
Specialty Foods Buyer/ Small Business Worker/Owner, Rainbow Grocery
Sydney Arkin
Dominic Phillips
Founder, DPEM
Noah Munro
Co-CEO, Good Roots
Dustin Canter
Natural Grocery Buyer, Oliver's Market
Shahla Rashid
Co-Founder, Zestfull
Brian Chan
Owner, Tiger's Taproom
Bianca Kaprielian
Randall Owczarzak
Ryan Lee
Senior Staff Product Designer, Faire
Maureen Hardy
Vice President, BCV
Standards
In order to be eligible for a Good Food Award, preserves 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.
- Made with ingredients that are foraged or grown:
- Locally.*
- With respect for seasonality.
- Without the use of synthetic inputs including herbicides, pesticides, fungicides or fertilizers.**
- 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.
- 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, and ingredients that make up less than 2% of the product, such as pectin and spices, may be sourced from farther afield, and are not required to be grown organically due to barriers in cost and access in some regions. Citrus juice (up to 15%) added to increase acidity of the preserve is also allowed to be sourced from outside the region of entry but must be grown in the same spirit as the primary preserved fruit (using the above organic standards) and sourced domestically where possible.
**IPM growing practices will be accepted for some fruit (apples, stone fruit) and will be evaluated on a case by case basis.
***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, preserves entries must fit within one of these subcategories:
- Conserve: Following the traditional definition, this refers to a preserve that includes a combination of fruit and nuts. Alternatively, a conserve may exclude nuts and utilize a methodology that includes a maceration period and rapid cook time.
- Curd: Fruit curds are creamy spreads made from acidic fruit juice, butter, and eggs cooked over a double-boiler until it becomes a custard.
- Fruit Butter: A preserve made from fruit that has been cooked initially, often in added liquid, and then pureed into a smooth texture and cooked a second time with the addition of sugar. The texture is spreadable like butter and silky smooth.
- Fruit Cheese or Leather: A preserve made from fruit that has been cooked initially, often in added liquid, and then pureed into a smooth texture and cooked a second time with the addition of sugar to a consistency where the liquid has been removed leaving a high concentration of fruit. Once cooled, it is solid and sliceable. Fruit leathers fall into this category.
- Jam: A cooked mixture of crushed or cut fruit and with a concentration of at least 55 percent sugar.
- Jelly: A combination of sugar and fruit juice which has been extracted from the fruit by simple cooking and straining. Jellies are clear in appearance and should hold their shape to some degree. Savory pepper jellies would also be included in this subcategory.
- Low Sugar Preserve: A cooked mixture of crushed or cut fruit and with a concentration of less than 55 percent sugar.
- Marmalade: From the Portugese word marmelo, marmalades are made with citrus fruit and sugar. They may, but do not necessarily need to, contain suspended pieces of fruit or peel. Two methodologies include cutting the citrus fruit for the marmalade or juicing the fruit and suspending the peel within.
- Syrup: Made from fruit juice extracted from fruit by maceration or cooking and then filtered and cooked with sugar and additional flavors of herbs, flowers and spices, if desired. The texture can range from light to heavy depending on the cooking time. Syrups can also be made from sugar and water infused with herbs, flowers or spices. Beginning with the 2018 Awards, syrups will be judged in the Elixirs category.