About the award
New Zealand food and beverage production is full of outstanding people who demonstrate a positive contribution to food safety in New Zealand. Highlighting their work celebrates the positive impact they make.
Sponsored by New Zealand Food Safety, the Significant Contribution to Food Safety Award is part of the New Zealand Institute of Food Science and Technology (NZIFST) Food Industry Awards.
The award recognises an organisation, team or individual that displays outstanding, original, or creative improvements or developments to food safety.
The award winner will be announced at the 2026 NZIFST Conference dinner, where they will be formally recognised alongside New Zealand’s industry and research leaders.
The Significant Contribution to Food Safety Award winner will receive a certificate of recognition and trophy, a ticket to attend the dinner, and a contribution towards the travel and accommodation costs to attend.
Find out about the previous award winners
Nominations and eligibility
We welcome nominations from any sector within the food industry.
Nominations are open to those who work at a New Zealand organisation or have contributed to the country's food safety system.
Fields of achievement include but are not limited to:
- building and maintaining an effective food safety culture (such as staff engagement, leadership, or continual improvement)
- equipment or processing technology
- industry best practice
- product or packaging development
- science and research
- contribution to a well-functioning food safety system.
Achievements must demonstrate a positive contribution to food safety in New Zealand.
An organisation, team, or individual can be nominated, and self-nominations are also accepted.
How to submit a nomination
Complete the online entry form by 5pm on 29 May 2026.
Significant Contribution to Food Safety Award entry form – SurveyMonkey
Entry tips
To ensure your entry hits the mark, here are some helpful tips and tricks:
- provide examples of you or your nomination’s achievements. Consider how these achievements affected people, processes, or the wider food sector
- describe how your or their work or achievements meet the award criteria
- include key dates and milestones or quantifiable results, which define how success is measured
- describe the full story
- explain how the work positively contributes to food safety in NZ
- describe what’s unique about their achievements or work, and
- make the most of the word count.
Previous award winners
In 2025, we congratulated distinguished professor Phil Bremer for his significant contributions to food safety.
Professor Bremer is currently the chief scientist at the New Zealand Food Safety Science and Research Centre (NZFSSRC), and distinguished professor of Food Science at the University of Otago.
His contributions to food safety in New Zealand stretch across several sectors, including a staggering 200+ journal articles and 276 keynote speeches and presentations. He has been instrumental in advancing research that ensures the safety and quality of New Zealand’s food supply.
Other winners of the award are:
- Dr Pierre Venter (2024)
- Dr Rob Lake (2023)
- Plant and Food's highly regarded Food Safety and Preservation Team (2022)
- Denver McGregor (2021)
- Aaron Dodunski (2020)
- Rosie Waller (2019)
- Professor Nigel French (2018)
- Dr Lesley Rhodes (2017).
