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2004 New Zealand
Ice Cream Awards
 The
eighth New Zealand Ice Cream Awards were announced
at the NZICMA Annual Conference in Cairns on Friday, 18th June
2004.
143 entries were submitted
by 12 manufacturers for judging by three expert judges, Mr Garry Baker
from Sydney, Ms Kay McMath and Ms Christine O’Sullivan from Auckland.
International
judging guidelines were followed with each ice cream being awarded the
maximum possible marks of 100 and from this points were deducted for
various imperfections in each of 4 areas:
 Appearance
defects
Body
and texture
Flavour
defects
Melting
defects
Entries were in
8 categories which included an Export Category (to
include/exclude packaging) and a category for Kids Choice.
A new category was established for the first time this year to
include the growing number of gelato/gelati and sorbet and low
fat products.
The Kids Choice is judged by children - this
year selected from a rural school, Alfriston,
in South Auckland. The kids, three boys and three girls, aged 7
- 13, couldn’t
believe their luck to score “their dream job”.
The Supreme
Award is given to the ice cream with the highest score
across all categories. This year the award went to the winner of
the Premium Category with a score of 99 points.
The Supreme Award
for 2004 went to Emerald Foods Ltd for their Heavenly
Treats Passionfruit Sorbet
The kids were very analytical in their decisions and scoring, but overall
their most preferred ice cream was Cookies and Cream 100% Natural
Ice Cream made by Rush Munro’s of NZ Ltd of
Hastings.
The Export Category was sponsored by NZ Trade & Enterprise
who provided a cash prize. The winning product was Monte Bianco Almond
Caramel made by Emerald Foods Ltd.
In the Open Creative Category the award went to Tip Top Ice
Cream Company Ltd for their Caramelised Macadamia Nut ice cream.
Entries in this category were not eligible for the Supreme Award as the products
do not have to be commercially available. This is to encourage entries from hotels,
restaurants, food institutes and other catering establishments.
The new category this year for Gelato/Gelati/Sorbet and Low Fat ice cream attracted
an impressive 30 entries. The quality of the products was exciting with some
wonderful natural, authentic fruit flavours being captured in these frozen treats.
The category is growing fast with consumers enjoying the superior quality of
fruit flavours possible in these formulations.
The judges complimented the manufacturers on improvements from last year. Texture
defects of stickiness and gumminess were much reduced this year and those defects
present were not so obvious to lose more than one point in most instances. Workshops
were held at the Conference to train the manufacturers in some of the more common
ice cream faults. All manufacturers agreed the experience was very enlightening
and educational in demonstrating the judging process and scoring systems.
Comments from the judges indicated that it was much easier to score well in Standard
ice creams without inclusions as the more complex the products, the more features
there were to judge and fault. Vanilla ice cream without inclusions is New Zealand’s
show piece of our superb dairy ingredients and manufacturing expertise and Deep
South’s Vanilla continued its winning run of Gold Awards.
Ice cream provides an excellent carrier for some of the world’s best fruit
flavours and the judges commented that while it was great to see the use of local
fruit such as feijoa being cleverly used, the inclusion of berryfruits was disappointing.
New Zealand has some of the best berryfruit in the world and yet this was not
reflected in the flavours of some of our berryfruit ice creams. The use of tropical
fruit flavours such as mango and passionfruit has also increased as consumers
become more familiar with the characteristics of the fresh fruit.
Creative use of meringue pieces carefully added to ice cream mixes after churning
worked well to add variety in both texture and flavour and bought the meaning
of pavlova and ice cream a whole step closer.
The entries proved to be an excellent vehicle to demonstrate the skills and talent
of our manufacturers, their product development teams and our supply of quality,
fresh, flavoursome ingredients from our dairy, horticultural and flavour and
confectionery industries. The Ice Cream Awards will continue to promote excellence
and innovation in the industry.
 A
full list of the 2004 Awards is here.
Photos
of the 2004 Awards presentations and winners here.
 Back to
the Awards page |
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