The Good Food Awards (GFAs) is an annual award competition for craft food producers and farmers who produce foods that are “tasty, authentic, and responsibly produced.” To enter in the competition, the crafter must produce a food that is made without genetically modified ingredients, uses good animal husbandry (if applicable), must be artificial ingredient-free, hormone-free, synthetic pesticide-free, herbicide-free, fertilizer-free, and must be produced in the USA.
Companies must enter their craft food items into one of 17 distinct food categories. These categories range from “beer” to “honey” to “preserves.” Our company and other seaweed companies who competed were in the “fish” category
The ‘category dilemma’ is one often encountered by companies selling seaweed-based foods in the US. The way consumers think about and enjoy food, how they use ingredients in recipes, and even most US food codes are based on what category the food falls into. Is seaweed a vegetable, a seasoning, or a seafood? It seems natural and convenient to classify seaweed as seafood, and indeed many seaweed harvesting regulations treat it that way. However, this isn’t always easy to apply in practice. Managing a cod fishery is very different from managing rockweed beds on the rocky shore. The same conundrum applies when seaweed-based foods are judged in competitions like the GFAs.
Despite the name “fish,” this GFA category does encompass all foods from the ocean! We hope one day the GFAs changes the name of this category to “ocean” or something more inclusive to “non-fish - but very much from the ocean foods.” Until then, we are excited to be able to be participate in the fish category.
Both our Kelp Krunch Original Sesame™ and Kelp Krunch Sesame Ginger™ recipes were submitted into the competition. We were honored to hear back from the Good Foods Foundation several weeks ago that both of our recipes of Kelp Krunch were accepted as finalists. Submissions from other seaweed companies including AKUA, Atlantic Sea Farms, Daybreak Seaweed, and Ocean’s Balance also made it into the finals.
It was announced on January 22nd 2021 that our Sesame Ginger™ submission had won in our category! You can find other winners in this helpful interactive map.
Our hand-made, small-batch Kelp Krunch™ is produced with all organic ingredients from trusted sources. It is a simple recipe containing only 4 base ingredients; sesame seeds, maple syrup, brown rice syrup, and sugar kelp. Our ginger recipe contains the addition of vanilla, cayenne, and ginger. Despite being a sweet treat, Kelp Krunch is packed with nutrition and makes a great snack on the go. It can also be broken up and used like granola over ice cream, in yogurt, and in other dishes.
We want to thank the Good Foods Foundation as well as our customers who have supported us in our mission to provide sustainably-sourced seaweed as food since 1971! We hope to continue to innovate and share our love for seaweed in the coming years, while also working towards reducing our environmental footprint on planet Earth and supporting our community.
