Frozen entries will figure prominently among 12 contenders for two Seafood Excellence Awards to be presented during the Seafood Expo & Seafood Processing North America event in Boston, Massachusetts, next month.
High Liner Foods’ Simply Sauce Seafood Bites are especially positioned to satisfy school foodservice directors’ need to offer students healthy choices and meet demand for tasty, fun lunch options. In the Best Foodservice New Product category, High Liner Foods’ Simply Sauce Seafood Bites will try to do for the Lunenberg, Nova Scotia, Canada-headquartered company what its Pulled BBQ Salmon did last year when it took the top prize. Packed at the company’s Portsmouth, New Hampshire, USA processing plant, the bite-size portions in the running this time around feature whole-grain, crunchy, breaded seafood in three varieties: salmon, pollock and shrimp.
High Liner will be against Trident Seafoods’ SeaFusions Pacific Cod Bites, Vinh Hoan Corporation’s Char Marked Barramundi, and Azuma Foods Internationals Inc.’s Tobikko Umami.
Will it be a repeat victory for Alaskan Jack’s Seafood Corporation in Boston this year? Its newly launched Frontier Harvest Alaskan Jack’s Gold Premium Pineapple-Teriyaki Sockeye. is vying for a Seafood Excellence Award along with products from three other companies.Alaskan Jack’s Seafood Corporation, last year’s champion in the Retail New Products category with award-winning Alaskan Jack’s Wild-caught Salmon Fillets, will defend its title in the 2016 competition with recently introduced Frontier Harvest Alaskan Jack’s Gold Premium Pineapple-Teriyaki Sockeye.
Innovative products from seven other companies are vying for first place in the retail contest, namely: Phillips Foods’ Shrimp Toast; Premier Marine Canada’s Waterview Market Shrimp with Sauce; Aqua Star’s Crab & Shrimp Seafood Feast; Bantry Bay America Inc.’s Mussels in a Creamy Stout Sauce; Absolutely Lobster’s Absolutely Lobster Homemade Tomato Sauces; Santa Barbara Smokehouse’s Honey Glazed Oak Roasted Salmon; and French Creek Seafoods’ Kickin’ Seafood Chili.
All products in the competition entered the North American marketplace during the past 18 months. Each finalist will be showcased at the exposition for the duration of the March 6-8 trade fair. Winners will be announced during a special awards ceremony on March 6, at 3:30 PM, in the Demonstration Theatre of the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center.
The 12 products making the final round of judging were narrowed down from almost 60 entries. Each was carefully reviewed by three experts from the seafood sector who evaluated taste, uniqueness and appropriateness to the market, originality, packaging, potential for consumer acceptance, convenience and nutritional value.
