Russell Kolody

Welcome to the 2022 sofi Awards, the 50th Anniversary honoring creativity and great taste in the specialty food industry! Some important dates to remember: · Online entries ($105 per entry) for the 2022 Awards will remain open until March 31. · Product entries will be accepted at Rutgers Food Innovation Center from until April 8. · Judging for the 2022 sofi Awards will begin on April 12 and run through April 29. What’s new in 2022: · We’ve simplified our award levels to Gold and New Product. · You spoke, we listened! We’ve broken out additional categories for this year’s Awards. The following are stand-alone categories…Barbecue Sauce*Hot Sauce*Meat and Poultry*Seafood*Olive Oils*Nut and Other Oils*Vinegars. · The 2022 Product of the Year and New Product of the Year Awards will be announced live at the 2022 Summer Fancy Food Show in New York City. Key member and product eligibility rules to keep in mind: You must be a member in good standing of the Specialty Food Association. · 2022 membership dues must be paid in full. · Entries in the New Product category must have been introduced to the U.S. market after February 28, 2021 and before February 28, 2022. · Products competing in all categories must be selling in the U.S. market no later than February 28, 2022. · All product entries must be ready for sale. Mock-ups and products still in R&D phase will not be accepted. If you have any additional questions or need further assistance, please reach out to us at sofiawards@specialtyfood.com

2021 sofi Awards Welcome to the 2021 sofi Awards! Some important dates to remember: Online entries ($95 per entry) for the 2021 Awards begin on March 1 and will remain open until March 31. Product entries will be accepted at Rutgers Food Innovation Center from March 1 until April 8. Judging for the 2021 sofi Awards will begin on April 12 and run through May 7. Key member and product eligibility rules to keep in mind: You must be a member in good standing of the Specialty Food Association. 2021 membership dues must be paid in full. Entries in the New Product category must have been introduced to the U.S. market after March 1, 2020 and before October 1, 2020. Products competing in all categories must be selling in the U.S. market no later than October 1, 2020; (for a minimum of six months). All product entries must be ready for sale. Mock-ups and products still in R&D phase will not be accepted. If you’ve been on the sofi website recently (https://www.specialtyfood.com/awards/sofi/) , you may have noticed that we’ve made a few significant changes this year. In an effort to keep the program competitive and a sofi win even more prestigious, we have eliminated the Bronze statue from this year’s awards. Entries in the general categories will now be vying for Gold and Silver Awards and as always, there will be a New Product Award for each general category as well. As the judging criteria for general entries differs somewhat from that of New Product entries, the 2021 sofi Awards will be introducing a second Product of the Year Award for New Products! In addition to a Product of the Year Award being presented to the product scoring the highest in the general categories, this second Product of the Year Award will be given to the highest scoring new product. You may remember there being a postponement last year due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Not this year…The SFA has partnered with Rutgers Food Innovation Center for logistics management and judging, bringing additional depth in food industry expertise to the competition. The entire process will be housed at Rutgers FIC, assuring there will be no postponement this year. As they say, the show must go on! If you have any additional questions or need further assistance, please reach out to us at sofiawards@specialtyfood.com