Food or drink competitions reward products primarily for their " gustative worth" in the form of an award or a medal. These competitions can be classified into different categories, and most awards are product-specific, such as for wines, beers, and cheeses. Others focus on local, regional and/or national products. Finally, the international competitions test all kinds of foods and drinks available to consumers on a retail basis. Wine is probably the most tested drink, followed by beer and spirits. There is a variety of such food and drink competitions worldwide, where the taste and quality of products are assessed. Most evaluations are carried out blind, sometimes complemented by laboratory analysis. The jury usually consists of a panel of different types of "experts" in tastings such as chefs or

sommelier A sommelier ( or or ; ), or wine steward, is a trained and knowledgeable wine professional, normally working in fine restaurants, who specializes in all aspects of wine service as well as wine and food pairing. The role of the wine steward in hau ...

s. The history of degustation tests is unclear; however, one of the earliest taste awards recorded for drinks is the

Brewing Industry International Awards The International Brewing Awards, previously known as the Brewing Industry International Awards (BIIA), is a biannual brewing competition with its origins dating to 1886. It is believed to be the oldest international brewing competition in the wo ...

, dating back to 1888. For food,

Monde Selection Monde Selection is an annual non-competitive award open to food, drinks, and cosmetics products, created in 1961. It is run by the commercial company, International Institute for Quality Selections, Brussels, Belgium. Consumer products are tasted a ...

is the oldest award recorded, first run in 1961. Since then, as the variety of food products on the market has grown, so has the number of competitions and evaluations. Monde Selection states that "This bronze, silver, gold or grand gold quality label can be compared to the quality stars of a hotel or those of the

Michelin Guide The Michelin Guides ( ) are a series of guide books that have been published by the French tyre company Michelin since 1900. The Guide awards up to three Michelin star (classification), stars for excellence to a select few establishments. The ac ...

." However, whilst both processes are anonymous, Michelin chooses the hotels and restaurants it reviews and pays for everything. Only products who pay the Euro 1,100 entry fee are reviewed by Monde Selection. Unlike Olympic gold, silver and bronze medals, where only one of each is awarded per event, there are no limits to how many can be awarded in each category. Other competitions use a similar business model. Most awarding organizations charge an entry fee. Alternatively, for some awards, producers or retailers pay a fee only if their products are awarded and/or they decide to communicate about the award (payment for the right to show the award on packaging). In both cases, one might think that these recognitions can be bought. However, tastings are carried out independently and are blind-tested, where judges focus exclusively on sensory (

organoleptic Organoleptic properties are the aspects of food, water or other substances that create an individual experience via the senses—including taste, sight, smell, and touch. USDA uses In traditional U.S. Department of Agriculture meat and poul ...

) features, such as taste, olfaction, vision, aspect, mouth-feel, after-taste, without being influenced by packaging, branding or marketing. Of course, only producers who pay the entry fee can make use of any award made.

Competitions

These are all pay to enter: *

International Wine Contest A wine competition is an organized event in which trained judges or consumers competitively rate different vintages, categories, and/or brands of wine. Wine competitions generally use Blind wine tasting, blind tasting of wine to prevent bias by the ...

New York International Olive Oil Competition The New York International Olive Oil Competition (NYIOOC) is an annual extra virgin olive oil competition founded in 2013 by Curtis Cord, the publisher of the trade journal '' Olive Oil Times.'' The 2022 NYIOOC attracted 1,267 entries from 28 count ...

Superior Taste Award The Superior Taste Award is an annual non-competitive prize open to any consumer food or drink product, subject to payment of an entry fee of Euro 750-1650. It is organised since 2005 by the International Taste Institute, who specialised in the s ...

World Beer Cup The World Beer Cup is an international beer competition organized by the Brewers Association, a trade group representing America's small and independent craft brewers. It is the largest competition in the beer industry and has been described as " ...

* A.A. Taste Award

References

Competition Food and drink awards

Competitions

See also

References