Highland Farms and Social Kitchens Professional/SK Foods Brand were revealed as the winners of the 2024 Seafood Excellence Awards, announced 10 March at Seafood Expo North America/Seafood Processing North America in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A.
Highland Farms won the Best New Retail Product award for its Salmon Salami, while Social Kitchens Professional/SK Foods Brand won the Best New Foodservice Product prize for its Premium Shrimp Sliders.
The winning Salmon Salami product by Highland Farms comprises “Atlantic salmon air-dried for 14 days and cured over fragrant beechwood, and … it embodies the perfect fusion of traditional craftsmanship and exceptional taste,” the company said.
“We’ve spent a year and a half working on this project and wanted to develop something that has a unique taste,” Highland Farms CEO Jonathan Brown told SeafoodSource. “The original recipe, we found, went back 80 years. We’ve worked on it for months and months.”
Social Kitchens Professional/SK Foods Brand said its Premium Shrimp Sliders are “made with solid chunks of shrimp, [with] no binders, fillers, scraps, or gluten.”
“Our company’s mission is to create products that people really enjoy and they can actually resonate with. Our slider was built by lots of feedback and collaboration,”Social Kitchens Professional/SK Foods Brand Director of Product Development Kenneth Fryer told SeafoodSource upon winning the award. “We really rely on our chefs to give us all the details about what really makes sense. This product represents that, and I think it’s showing well; people really enjoy eating it.”
The winning products were selected from a pool of 11 finalists by a panel of judges live on the first day of the expo. This year’s judges included Jason Driskill, the vice president of seafood at San Antonio, Texas, U.S.A.-headquartered H-E-B; Bob Donegan, the president of Seattle, Washington, U.S.A.-based restaurant chain Ivar’s; and Robin Fisher, the director of corporate purchasing at Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S.A.-based HF Foods Group.
Finalists’ products were appraised considering criteria including uniqueness and appropriateness to the market, taste profile, market potential, convenience, nutritional value, and originality.
Finalists for the competition were selected via a prior screening of products participating in the Seafood Expo North American New Product Showcase, featuring seafood products, condiments, and culinary dishes launched in the past year by exhibiting companies.
Produced by Diversified Communications, Seafood Expo North America/Seafood Processing North America is North America’s largest seafood trade event, drawing seafood professionals from around the world, featuring 1,210 exhibiting companies from 49 countries.
