retailers, foodservice, distributors, as well as the
press. The 2023 sofi Award winning products will
be on display at the Winter Fancy Food Show at
booth 1919.
Show attendees can learn more about the sofi
Awards on Sunday, January 21 at 1:30 p.m., during
Mastering the Art of sofi: An Insider's Guide to the
sofi Awards, located at the Beverage Pavilion Pop
Up: Flights of Fancy at the Las Vegas Convention
Center. The educational tasting, hosted by Nolan
Lewin of the Rutgers Food Innovation Center,
will delve into the behind-the-scenes sofi judging
process.
Non-member companies who'd like to enter
the sofi Awards can become a product-qualified
SFA member and enter the competition.
More information about the sofi Awards may
be found at specialtyfood.com/awards/sofi.
sofi Award Program Opening Soon
By Julie Gallagher
Specialty Food Association will begin accepting
applications for its sofi Awards on February 8.
Product-qualified SFA members in good
standing are eligible to enter their products to
win sofi Awards in more than 50 categories. The
winning products will be announced in May and
the top scoring products will be tasted by hundreds
of buyers at the Summer Fancy Food Show. They
will vote to determine the 2024 Products of the Year
and other new awards.
The sofi Awards have been honoring the best
in specialty food since 1972. Award honorees are
selected through an anonymous tasting process that
includes buyers, and are true innovators in their
categories. SFA's partner, Rutgers Food Innovation
Center, will manage the judging with the process
housed at Rutgers FIC.
The sofi Award brings with it exposure to food
buyers from top names in supermarkets, specialty
SFA's Maker Prep Online Course
Specialty Food Association offers a 12-Step Maker
Prep Course that is designed to help specialty food
makers begin or accelerate their food business. The
cost is $99 for members and $249 for non-members.
Focusing on 12 essential topics, the course
features 35 experts. Here is how it works:
• You have six months of access to the self-
paced course where you can move through it
freely to learn the topics most relevant to you.
• You can choose from 12 different topics, with
a module for each that includes recorded
lessons, knowledge checks, and additional
resources to help your business maker skills.
The course is broken into three phases based on
where you are on your business journey.
Makers may purchase the course by visiting
the specialtyfood.com Learning Center.
SFA to Seek Hall of Fame
Nominations
Specialty Food Association will solicit nominations
for its Hall of Fame, this winter.
The Hall of Fame's mission is to honor
individual whose accomplishments, impact,
contributions, innovations, and successes within
the specialty food industry deserve praise and
recognition.
Nominees must be SFA members in good
standing or have held SFA membership for at
least 10 years in the past. Self-nominations and
nominations from public relations or marketing
firms will not be accepted. SFA Board Members
may not be nominated during their active terms.
A panel of independent judges—part of the
SFA Recognition Council—will convene to review
entries and select honorees.
48 SPECIALTY FOOD SPECIALTYFOOD.COM
ASSOCIATION NEWS
Julie Gallagher is director, content development for the
Specialty Food Association.
