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.
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, carrageen, gums and artificial thickeners.
- 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.
- 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.*****
*Honey does not require organic certification, but must meet the criteria established for the Good Food Awards honey category.
**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.
****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.
*****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.