Our customers always tell us we would win by far. This is our answer to this…….

How to win medals for “supposedly” quality sausage. At different sausage competitions the judges are from the suppliers of spices and additives to the smallgoods industry so in reality if you buy spices from them you win a medal and if you don’t, you don’t win a medal, so in effect you can actually buy this medal. This medal that has no significance whatsoever is presented on all that makers products on their packaging for all types of sausage for years and years to come. So if one maker wins a medal, he then puts that medal on all different types of sausage. All it says is that it got a medal, it hardly ever says what year it was won or what sausage won the prize. Furthermore, the making of that sausage is more often than not, made as a one off quality sausage for that competition but then they revert back to the poor quality sausage afterwards and continue to place their medal sticker on it.


We have been asked a number of times by delicatessens and other customers that we supply why we don’t go to these competitions with our ham or sausage, they have said that we would win easily, but we refuse to because the system is corrupt. In our opinion some of these judges have no qualification to judge these products, all they know is how to make a fresh sausage with ready mix. In our mind judgement should be made on these products after being picked up at random from the places they are sold or at random without warning from the factories where they are made. The judges must be neutral, they have to know what they are talking about without any bias. Then we would see fair competition and we would gladly join the competition. We source our spices and ingredients from all over the world, Australia included but we will not buy from a local supplier just for convenience or price, we only use the best ingredients in all our products.

After all we are a Fifth Generation Smallgoods maker since 1878 and our focus is on making quality healthy products to keep our customers happy. We are not in the business of “buying medals”!

Update……..

After ongoing discussion with the Australian Meat Industry Council (AMIC) some changes to these competitions have been achieved. We believe that this may improve the integrity of the competitions and we are impressed that AMIC has taken our concerns on board and is working to effect change.

The following changes have been implemented for 2016 and relate to:

AMIC Sausage King Competition – 2016

AMIC Ham, Bacon & Smallgoods Competition – 2016

Judges, both Competitions

  • In 2016 all judges will have an expertise in one off the following areas, this is designed to get a cross section of expertise
    • Knowledge of consumer expectations and trends within the market place.
      • Food bloggers, Qualified Chefs who are trainers in TAFE and Chefs who are at the forefront of influencing at home cooking, eg Dominic Rizzo
  • Industry experts who now how a quality product is produced, food industry knowledge.
    • Food Service technicians, Food Service product developers (eg Kerry’s and Devro), Trainers from the RTO’s who actual train Butchers and Chefs ( TAFE, AXIAL )
  • Media Personalities within the nominated region who can add fun, excitement and public attention
  • We are moving away from public based judges to enable the competition has more integrity and consistency across all regions.

Product

  • All products entered must be available to the consumer at time of the competition.
  • All Competition winners can only market there winning product for 12 months.
  • All marketing must be on the winning product only.
  • All products entered must meet the conditions of each competition, eg product description, packaging, size etc.

Our thanks go to Rob Mollison and AMIC Queensland for implementing these changes.