Rules
Good Food Awards Rules
- Up to 4 entries are allowed per producer in all categories except for coffee. Up to 3 entries are allowed per coffee producer, each from a different country of origin.
- Producers must wait one year to re-enter a Good Food Award winning product.*
- There is a non-refundable entry fee of $105 for each submission.
- Shipping and product costs for entries to be covered by entrant.
- Products must be made in a licensed kitchen/facility/plant, or as required by state and local regulations, and be ready for retail sale. All ingredients must meet FDA and/or USDA standards with less frequently used ingredients on the GRAS (Generally Recognized As Safe) list for consumption.
- If produced by a copacker (or for Fish, a cannery or processor), the product must be made:
- from the entrant’s own recipe
- with strict and verifiable sourcing that meets Good Food Awards category standards
- with regular quality control measures set in place
- Ingredients that are part of an entry which fall into one of our other Good Food Awards categories (e.g., honey or olive oil in a snack entry) should meet the sustainability standards of those categories.
- Entrants who score well in the Blind Tasting will be asked to provide more information on sourcing and their sustainability and social responsibility practices to verify they meet the Good Food Awards detailed standards. Entrants will be disqualified if they do not meet the standards or any statements made are found to be false.
- 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 operate on a significantly larger scale, meeting additional criteria related to board diversity, parental leave and employment practices.
- Additional criteria for large-scale companies: While Good Food Award Winners are overwhelmingly small companies – more than 80% have a budget of less than $250,000 annually – larger companies have shown increasing interest in the Awards. While they make up less than 1% of the companies that enter, we welcome larger scale companies that adhere to our category standards and are “upstanding members of the good food community, committed to equity and inclusion in all levels of their business.” Due to the fact that they have substantially more resources, additional requirements apply that are unique and go beyond what is required of smaller companies with limited resources.
With that in mind, both publicly-held companies, companies owned/partially-owned by publicly-held companies, and those with over $100 million in annual revenue, as well as their parent company(ies), are required to meet these additional criteria to qualify for a Good Food Award:
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- Offers a minimum of 12 weeks of paid parental leave to all employees
- Has at least one woman, minority, or LGBTQ+ representative on their Board of Directors
- Has 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.**
12. The Good Food Foundation reserves the right to revoke Finalist, Winner, or Guild Member status at any time, before or after it has been announced, should new information come to light that indicates a producer or product does not meet the letter or spirit of the Good Food Awards Standards. This decision will be made at the sole discretion of the Good Food Foundation.
13. In the case that Finalist, Winner, or Guild Member status is revoked, use of the Good Food Awards and Good Food Guild seal and logo are no longer permitted, and their likeness and any written reference to this status is to be removed from the food or drink producer’s website, packaging and communications.
14. The Good Food Foundation reserves the right to update the criteria, rules and regulations as needed in service of its mission.
*To pave the way for new products and entry-level producers, there is a one-year wait period on re-entering a Good Food Award winning product. Please note that all products are eligible for entry in 2026 as 2025 was a special anniversary year edition of the Awards and did not include a Blind Tasting & Judging component.
**The Good Food Foundation will verify that no such violations have occurred on the Good Jobs First Violation Tracker.
Regulations
To learn more about any of the following Good Food Awards topics, click below.
The 2026 Entry Period will be from July 7-31, 2025. The best way to keep in touch with dates is by signing up for our newsletter at the bottom of the homepage.
This year, we’ve launched a new entry system to make entering your products even easier. Complete the online entry process and pay the $105 entry fee per product in July. We’ll be in touch with details on when and where to ship your entry samples for judging in the fall. High scoring products from the Blind Tasting & Judging will be contacted for a vetting interview to verify the ingredient sourcing and production methods of their entry. Please view individual category standards to learn more about your product’s requirements.
To enter you’ll need to share basic company information and a self-certification to the responsible production standards outlined for your product category. Please add connect@goodfoodfdn.org to your email inbox so that you receive all further updates about your entry status.
The 16th annual Good Food Awards will honor food and drink from 18 different categories: beer, charcuterie, cheese, chocolate, cider, coffee, confections, drinks, elixirs, preserved fish, grains, honey, oils, pantry, pickles, preserves, snacks, and spirits. For the types of foods eligible from each category, please view the standards page.
In 2025, we conducted a thorough review of all of our categories with the support of industry groups, partners, subject matter experts, crafters, and past judges.
To ensure we can fairly judge the quantity of entries received, each company is limited to 4 entries per category, except for coffee roasters who are restricted to 3 entries. For example, a company that produces both preserves and pickles may enter up to eight products, four in our Pickles category and four ikn our Preserves category. Please enter the products you consider to best exemplify the qualities of tasty, authentic and responsible.
General
- Products are made, packed, and stored in licensed or certified facilities, in a manner that follows all federal, state, and local regulations.
- Products are ready for sale.
Category Specific
- Pickles, Pantry, Elixirs, Preserves: Products considered to be a low-acid or acidified food follow necessary time temperature and pH controls to ensure they are safe for human consumption.
There is a $105 entry fee for each product submitted (Early Bird entries, July 7-9 are $95/entry). This fee offsets some of the cost of processing entries and the Blind Tasting & Judging. The fee is payable with a credit card at the time your products are entered.
Due to the high volume of entries, all entry fees are non-refundable, so please ensure the products you enter fit the guidelines outlined.
While the entry period occurs in July, shipping of products does not occur until later in the year. Information about when, where, anbd how to ship your product will be sent to all entrants prior to judging this fall. Shipping costs are covered by the entrant. The quantity required varies according to category and follows industry standards. Please view our Oils page for more information about shipping your oil entry.
All submissions that meet the criteria for entry as outlined on the entry form will be judged at an in-person Blind Tasting. Each category has its own panel of judges with special expertise in the industry, whose names can be found on the website starting in late summer. In all categories, Awards are given to the top scoring products in the Blind Tasting from each region provided they pass the vetting process and meet the minimum tasting scores put in place to ensure that consistent exceptional taste quality is found in all winners across categories and regions. Please view our Oils page for more information about the Oils Blind Tasting.
The Good Food Awards honor food produced throughout the United States. In order to fairly represent the diverse food traditions and growing seasons around the country, awards are granted to producers in each of five regions (North, South, East, West, Central), with judges representing all areas.
It is our hope that by honoring producers nationwide, we will encourage food producers and small farmers in every pocket of the country.
- Committee Chairs and Members may not serve as judges at the Good Food Awards Blind Tasting.
- Judges may not submit products to the category they are judging. They may submit products to other categories.
- Only Committee Chairs and Members (up to 3 per category) and Good Food Awards staff may have access to entrant information. They may share the names of submitting companies with committee members as part of group outreach efforts for entries, but no other product information.
- Only Committee Chairs may have access to Blind Tasting scores, and they may not share the information with anyone besides Good Food Awards staff. If a Committee Chair works for a company entering the Good Food Awards, they will not be the designated Chair who has access to scores. Should both Chairs be affiliated with entering companies, the Good Food Awards will designate an unaffiliated person to collect and coordinate the scoring during the Blind Tasting.
- No more than one person from any given company or organization may serve on each category’s judging panel.*
* Coffee category is exempt from this rule, though efforts will be made to follow it to the extent possible without compromising the level of expertise on the tasting panel.