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Snacks

The winners in the Good Food Awards snacks category have met the highest standards of achievement with meticulously sourced, high-quality ingredients that have been thoughtfully prepared with the right snacking moment in mind. We consider these snacks the tastiest items to grab between meals! Whether it be through the crisp texture of a cracker or the unique flavor combination of a granola, snacks celebrate a diversity of flavor profiles and textures.

About

The Good Food Awards rely on the expertise of the snacks 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 snacks standard are and who will be judging this year.

Committee

Chair

Caetie Ofiesh

Operations Director at Wholesome Bakery

Caetie is the Operations Director at Wholesome Bakery, a fast-growing gluten-free, vegan and refined-sugar free bakery CPG company with deep roots in San Francisco. At Wholesome she leads the strategy and connections between product, distribution, production and supply chain, solving problems and creating systems to make everything smoother and more scalable. Caetie also supports small-to-medium food businesses with design and operations consulting, leveraging her 10+ years working in food, from back-of-house to business planning. Most importantly of all though, Caetie is an expert snacker with a lifetime’s worth of experience discerning what’s good food.

2026 Judges

Ashley Pons

Founder, Gromster Designs

Patricia Baker

Chocolate Blogger, Eating the Chocolate Alaphabet

Emily Haws

Marketing Consultant, Em in the kitchen

Elizabeth Vecchiarelli

Owner, Preserved

Olga Katsnelson

Founder/CEO, Postcard PR

Christine Schantz

Board of Directors, Civil Eats

Susie Wyshak

Good Food Realtor, FoodStarter

Greg O'Neill

Principal, Grow Ideas

Cynthia Shannon

Assoc. Marketing Manager, Ghirardelli

Jane Hsieh-Fiore

Fractional CMO/Marketing Advisor, Numi Tea/wildwonder

Tom Monday

Owner, Small Batch America

Eva Fang

Retail Sales Lead, General Mills

Jordan Winter

Creative Director, Avant Food Media

Yumiko Hirayama

Handler Certification Specialist, CCOF

Tanya Henry

Food Writer

Standards

In order to be eligible for a Good Food Award, snacks entries must meet the following standards:

  • Made in the USA or US territories.
  • Made with a balanced objective of local, organic and highest-quality.*
  • Made with transparency in supply chain.**
  • Free of high fructose corn syrup, palm oil and artificial ingredients, including colors, flavors and preservatives.
  • Made with rBGH-free milk, where milk is used.
  • Made with flours
    • That have not been bleached or bromated
    • Grown without the use of synthetic herbicides, pesticides, fungicides or fertilizers.***
  • Free of genetically modified ingredients.
  • Made with spices that are certified organic, Fair Trade, or traceable to the farm level.*
  • Must include more than one ingredient or be created in such a way that an agricultural product has been transformed into a value-added snack. If product entered is a single ingredient transformed to a value-added snack, single ingredient must be grown without the use of synthetic 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.
    • 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

Subcategories

Additionally, snacks must fit in one of the following subcategories:

  • Cookies & Baked Goods (e.g. brownies, shortbread, macarons, sweet breads – must be ready for retail)
  • Jerky
  • Dehydrated Fruit
  • Popcorn (must be pre-popped)
  • Granola
  • Chips (e.g., corn, potato, veggie)
  • Crackers & Crisps (excludes graham crackers or other sweet cookie-like crackers)
  • Bars & Balls (e.g., granola, protein, energy)
  • Hard Pretzels
  • Snack Mixes (e.g., trail, nut, seed, or party!)
  • Puffs (e.g., cheese, quinoa, rice, veggie)

View the 2024 Snacks Winners