A record number of gold medals have been awarded in this year’s New Zealand Ice Cream and Gelato Awards.
Category Winners including the Supreme Champions will be named on Thursday 1 September 2022 at the NZ Ice Cream & Gelato Awards Gala Dinner. See all the medal winners here.
Chief Judge Jackie Matthews says the high number of medal is a reflection of the quality in the industry. “The quality of these locally produced ice creams, gelatos and sorbets is as good as ever, proven by the high number of gold medals awarded.”
“It’s across the board, we saw strong medal results in the Sorbet and the Best of Chocolate Category, they both offered many stand out entries on judging day. What’s more the judges were impressed by the innovation in the Open Creative entries, with twice as many gold medals awarded in this category compared to the previous judging in 2020.”
Judges awarded 189 medals – a record of 61 gold medals were presented, 66 silver medals were awarded and for the first time in its 25 year history the NZ Ice Cream & Gelato Awards have conferred 62 bronze medals.
Jackie Matthews, supported by a panel of 20 judges and 10 stewards assessed 290 New Zealand ice creams, gelatos, sorbets and dairy-free frozen products on Saturday 23 and Sunday 24 July 2022.
The Awards, run by the NZ Ice Cream Association, have been held since 1997 and are celebrating 25 years recognising Aotearoa’s finest and sharing the results with Kiwi ice cream lovers. New Zealand Ice Cream Association president, President Karl Tiefenbacher is pleased with this year’s results, saying after all the challenges of the past couple of years it’s heartening to see the quality of locally made ice cream and gelato is better than ever.
“Ice Cream and Gelato is the perfect treat for Kiwis to reward themselves at the end of a busy week and as an industry we’re thrilled that we’re giving Kiwis a little taste of joy – which we know is made to the highest quality standards.”
Karl Tiefenbacher says the announcement of this year’s awards is significant because it comes as the Awards celebrate 25 years. “Continual evolution over the past quarter of a century has ensured these Awards represent our evolving industry. For example this year we’ve included gelato in the Awards name, recognising the huge love Kiwis have for gelato and the importance it has in production, compared to when the awards started in 1997.
2022 NZ Ice Cream & Gelato Awards
Image credits: FarmersWeekly / Kinda
Cauliflower confectionary
The primary sector featured strongly in the finalists for this year’s KiwiNet research and commercialisation awards, with entries ranging from a cauliflower “ice-cream” to the Ruby Red kiwifruit launch, FarmersWeekly has reported
The annual awards showcase latest research innovations poised for commercial deployment, including Massey food tech student Mrinali Kumar’s cauliflower “ice cream”, with her Kinda brand utilising the vegetable to provide a creamier, more dairy-like texture than other products.
Kumar’s aim was to produce a product as close as possible to regular ice-cream, but with a lower environmental footprint. This involved partnering with social enterprise organisation Perfectly Imperfect to use imperfect cauliflowers that would otherwise not be sold at retail.
For more see: Kinda/Linkedin
