This is just a little bit of a lovein for these awards. I absolute admire and need them. I tell so many people about them all the time because they champion and showcase so many amazing free from products. I have discovered so many new companies through them.
The awards cover food and skincare and I’ve been lucky to be involved as a judge for both for many years now.
As someone living with food allergies and eczema, I’ve discovered so many new products through these awards. Look out for their distinctive yellow logo on freefrom foods when you’re out shopping.
Have you visited their website yet?
Free From Food Awards
Established in 2008, The FreeFrom Food Awards are the UK’s ONLY award for freefrom food and drink.
They celebrate the very best in freefrom and assures that a product has been rigorously taste tested and has compliant/good labelling. Food and drinks that win these awards are seen as benchmarks in the business; small producers and supermarkets compete on a level playing field for these coveted awards.
Visit the Free From Food Awards website.
Free From Skincare Awards
The only awards focusing on ‘free from’ cosmetics and skincare products — with two annual awards.
The winners of the Free From Gift Awards 2020 were announced on 24th November 2020. Click here to see the full results.
The Free From Skincare Awards 2021 will open on 1st February 2021. Visit the Free From Skin Care Awards website.
Judges perks
Being a judge at these awards is so much fun. We get to taste so many tasty foods, anonymously and blindly and together we vote on which we prefer. The process is complex, we do see the ingredients because many judges, like myself, have life threatening allergies. We then have to rank each product out of ten and this can be tricky. When you can’t remember the one you tried first and need another taster!
It’s a lot of fun but it’s a very responsible position. I’m so thrilled and humbled every year to be invited back and look forward to these sessions. I hope we can still go ahead with judging in the new year.
The Free From Skincare judging did take place earlier this year, socially distanced, with masks, but it just wasn’t quite the same, when you can’t see the other judges lovely faces properly.
Rest assured, all of us judges take our role very seriously and we often disagree! There can be heated debates about which Crumpet is the best and why!
Follow the FreeFrom Awards today!
Follow, follow, follow, follow, follow the yellow free from logo! All the way to the Awards!
Check out their website: https://www.freefromfoodawards.co.uk/
Follow them on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FreeFromFoodAwards
Follow them on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/freefromfoodawards/
And if you have a favourite Free From brand who you engage with, encourage them to enter. It’s not just for big brands and supermarkets, although we champion the ones who do it well, it’s also for the small independent companies.
Thank you all, for making free from great!
Thank you Ruth, what a gorgeous blog! We utterly and completely love you too <3
Awww mutual appreciation xxx Check out the links at the bottom to see just how long I’ve loved the awards and also a poem I wrote years ago. LOLS
The problem I have with these awards is that the company enter themselves and have to pay too. To me this means that smaller companies can’t afford to enter and that the awards are therefore not unbiased. I’d like to see ones that are free of charge which genuinely test all the products available in that particular category.
Hi Caroline, yes I hear what you’re saying. I’m sure some companies are deterred by the fee. I’ll mention this to the organisers. It’s a catch22 between being able to fund them and keep them going and making them accessible and open to all.
That would be great Ruth – thank you!
Hi Caroline, thank you for commenting. The FFFA are positioned towards the lower end of the cost scale where Food Awards are concerned and we feel very much that our entrants get *serious* value for money in exchange for the entry fee – for starters they get valuable feedback on every entry (not just every product) AND one free ticket to our legendary networking Presentation Party!
There is only so much companies can do for free, and I am not sure how one would run such a thing for free. It costs a lot of money to buy and sample all the products in a category – there are SO MANY! This is the way we ran these awards back when they first started in 2008/9/10. It may be that money could come from advertising? Or donations? But that could get dodgy!
Charging a fee enables us to pay for our judges to come across the country and join the blind judging tasting sessions. It also enables us to put on a fantastic party where freefrom businesses can get together with others and network. Our lowest fee is £94.50 per product, and our highest is £185.
Thanks for this Cressida. This explains it very well. In an ideal world there would obviously be no barriers to entry, but the hard work that goes into these awards can’t happen without some basic funding. Keep up the good work!
Thanks Ruth! Like our sister Awards, we also have to charge in the FF Skincare Awards, but we too offer a reduced fee for smaller companies. Charging doesn’t introduce ‘bias’. It does, however, mean that brands choose their best products for entry – and we can then recommend the best to consumers when the results are in! If it were free entry, brands would submit everything, and it would be simply overwhelming and unmanageable to handle ‘all the products available in that particular category’.
I hadn’t thought of the ‘brands could enter anything’ scenario! It’s complicated enough with their best products! Imagine if you had a sea products coming in. I am so grateful to these awards. They’ve taught me so much about skincare and good healthy ingredients and I’ve discovered so many amazing products through the judging. sessions. Keep up the good work. I do have a question for you about men’s skincare for eczema, are they any good products out there? That don’t smell quite so amazing… LOL. I’ll message you separately about this as I have a guy who I’m trying to help to heal his eczema naturally.