Important lessons were gleaned when a panel of judges evaluated this year's crop of Spirit of Innovation Award nominees. First and foremost, if ever you are fortunate enough to participate in a session of this kind, pace yourself--no matter how tasty one product may be.
For Prepared Foods' 2nd annual SOI contest, a few dozen entries made the cut to the tasting evaluation session. A certain panel member (who shall remain nameless) really enjoyed the Foodservice winning entry from Campbell Soup. This would have been an issue had the product not been among the final items judged; after all, a full stomach does not necessarily lend itself to a fair and balanced evaluation. However, it also demonstrates how tasty that product was: if you can sample nearly two dozen finalists and still make room for several (yep, several) servings of a food or beverage, it says something about its sensory quality.