Chatham Island Food Co founder Delwyn Tuanui with business partner Geoff Creighton.

What are the Outstanding New Zealand Food Producer Awards?

The Outstanding NZ Food Producer Awards – which celebrate Kiwis who harvest, grow and make food and drinks – were first held in 2017. Each year a team of highly esteemed food critics judge over 300 products, awarding the best with an Outstanding NZ Food Producer Award, in the form of a medal, special or supreme award.

Champion, Special Award, Gold, Silver and Bronze medals are awarded with winning products wearing medal stickers, as an independent endorsement of quality.

Small producers, large producers, growers that have established brands or makers of a product or products are all welcome to enter their products into the Outstanding New Zealand Food Producer Awards (ONZFPA), which are held annually. 

There are 11 categories that are available to enter products into.

We entered our Chatham Blue, Pure Paua Mince and Paua Pies into the Seafood New Zealand Water Category.

There are five stages of the ONZFPA, which are broken down into:

1. Products are entered
2. Products are judged
3. Gold, silver and bronze medal announcements across all categories
4. Champions Party at Mantells on Tamaki Drive with overall category winners and Supreme Champion announced
5. Champion Dinners in Auckland and Hamilton to celebrate category winners' produce. These are paid events open to the public.

Judging of the products took place on May 9th and 10th 2022 at Peter Gordon's Auckland restaurant, Homeland. After deliberation, the winners were announced on the week of May 30th, and all entrants were provided with feedback on their products.

We received the following feedback from judges. Chatham Blue - “It's perfect. Delightful texture and flavour. Tastes of the sea. Beautiful snowy white juicy flakes.” Pure Paua Mince - “The real deal, a substantial authentic mouthful. It is what it is.” Paua Pies - “Nice and lemony, paua creamy. Judges liked that you can taste the paua. A lovely mouthful, hard to fault.”

Following the medal announcements, there was a Champions Party held at Mantell’s on Tamaki Drive, Auckland on Tuesday 21st June. This was a wonderful evening which allowed the judges and entrants to mix and mingle while indulging in spectacular food and drinks from this year’s entrants. We were delighted to supply our Chatham Blue and Pure Paua Mince on the evening which was made into divine Paua patties.

What did Chatham Island Food Co win at the 2022 Outstanding New Zealand Food Producer Awards Medal Announcements?

During the medal announcements, we were absolutely thrilled to find out that our seafood had won Three Gold Medals in the Outstanding New Zealand Food Producer Awards - Seafood New Zealand Water Category for all three of our entered products!

Our Chatham Blue, Paua Pies (in collaboration with The West Coast Pie Co) and Pure Paua Mince all took home gold, and we couldn't be prouder. 

 

What did Chatham Island Food Co win at the 2022 Outstanding New Zealand Food Producer Awards Champions Party?

Our Pure Paua Mince was the overall winner in the Seafood New Zealand Water category. This was gratefully received by founder Delwyn Tuanui who spoke of his deep appreciation to everyone involved in allowing us to provide such exceptional kaimoana to Kiwis as he accepted the award. 

We then went on to win the top award of the evening and event, the Outstanding New Zealand Food Producer Supreme Champion Award! This is the first time in the award’s six-year history that a Seafood product has taken out the top accolade and the first time a Māori producer has won. As you can imagine, the whole team was blown away and this recognition means so very much to us. Thank you to all our loyal customers, old and new, for believing in us and loving our kaimoana just as much as we do.

To see full media coverage of our ONZFPA wins, please click here to see our 'As Seen On' page.

Leading New Zealand chefs, Peter Gordon of Homeland and Mat McLean of Palate Restaurant, will present exclusive one-off menus showcasing a selection of ‘outstanding’ medal winners from the 2022 ONZFPA. Each menu will be matched to award-winning New Zealand wine and craft beers.

Hamilton’s Champion Dinner held at Palate Restaurant on Thursday 28th July, 6pm with tickets available now. Email palate.restaurant@xtra.co.nz or phone 07 834 2921. Tickets cost $130pp.

Auckland’s Champion Dinner held at Homeland on Wednesday 24th August, 6.30pm with details to come.

Head to outstandingfoodproducer.co.nz for more information.