A milestone year for South Africa’s food industry — and proof that the Food & Home Awards has become the platform brands trust to grow.
There are launches, and then there are moments that mark a turning point. On 3 September, the Food & Home Awards 2026 did exactly that — bringing together the country’s most ambitious food brands, its most respected judges, and an industry hungry to celebrate genuine craft, for an afternoon of recognition at Tryn Restaurant, Steenberg Wine Estate.
In only its fourth year, the Awards have grown into one of the most credible stages a South African food brand can stand on — and this year’s numbers tell the story on their own.
A Year of Extraordinary Growth
- 453+ products entered across 25 categories and 63 sub-categories
- 44 days of hands-on adjudication — judges didn’t just taste, they baked, cooked and incorporated entries into real dishes to assess them properly
- A fully independent judging panel of foodies, chefs and industry experts, with no involvement from Food & Home Magazine in scoring — Habari Media only stepped back in once results were verified and audited
- A rigorous, refined scoring model: Taste (50%), Innovation & Uniqueness (25%) and Quality & Ingredients (25%)
The room on the day reflected the seriousness of that achievement: 20 founding members, owners and CEOs, alongside Managing Directors, Marketing Directors, General Managers and Operations Managers from some of the country’s leading food brands, gathered to see the results of months of independent, rigorous adjudication.
Why the Awards Exist
As Kenneth Wiid, General Manager at Habari Media, put it to the room: “Food & Home is not just about publishing recipes and sharing tips and tricks. It’s a platform to grow brands — to take your product to an appropriate target market and showcase it to a fast-growing industry.”
That’s the real purpose behind the Awards. It isn’t a trophy exercise — it’s a growth engine. Winning brands don’t just leave with a certificate; they leave with credibility, visibility and a story that resonates with retailers, distributors and consumers alike.
Nowhere was that clearer than in the story shared on the day of a brand that began in a home kitchen and garage, hesitant even to enter the 2025 Awards. Today, that same brand exports to Qatar and Dubai — a journey its founder credits directly to the platform the Food & Home Awards gave her.
Celebrating the Unexpected: The Award of Distinction
Alongside the category winners, this year’s ceremony introduced the Award of Distinction — reserved for the single product that arrived as an unknown and left unforgettable: an entry a judge encountered for the first time during judging, with no prior reputation, that earned its place purely on the strength of the product itself.
That honour went to Rozendal Vineyard Vinegars, accepted by Managing Director Nathalie Ammann — a fitting reminder that in this industry, exceptional quality speaks for itself.
A Celebration Worthy of the Achievement
The ceremony itself matched the calibre of the entrants. Hosted at Tryn Restaurant on the Steenberg Wine Estate — with thanks to The Beck Family Hospitality team, Managing Director Catherine Schulze, Marketing Manager Jessica Louw, and Chef Kerry Kilpin, whose canapés and harvest table showcased the estate’s five-star standard of refined, locally-sourced dining — the afternoon brought together an industry to properly celebrate itself, before continuing the celebrations informally into the evening.
The Invitation: Your Brand, Next Year
If your brand didn’t enter this year, the calibre on display should be the reason to start preparing for 2027 — not a reason to hold back. The brands that stepped forward this year walked away with more than an award: they walked away with a growth story, a credibility marker, and a platform in front of the exact audience that matters to them — from home cooks to seasoned chefs, culinary students to the country’s most engaged food enthusiasts.
The Food & Home Awards has, in four years, established itself as a genuine barometer of quality and innovation in South African food. As the categories grow and the entries get sharper, one thing is certain: the brands who back themselves to enter are the ones who will define where this industry goes next.
Entries for the Food & Home Awards 2027 open soon. If 2026 was any indication, this is a stage worth stepping onto.
Congratulations to every brand who entered, adjudicated, and celebrated with us this year — your commitment to quality is what makes this industry, and this Awards programme, worth showing up for.
