The ACI National Chef Board, comprised of world-renowned leaders in the culinary community and ACI's National Culinary Director and Flavor and Sensory Specialist developed the rigorous double-blind judging process used to evaluate thousands of products every year and award only the best products in the marketplace its prestigious Best Taste Award (retail), and Best of Class Award (foodservice).

The Evaluation Process
All products selected for the rigorous testing are identified and purchased by ACI at local supermarkets. In the testing lab, products are stripped of all brand identification and presented to the chef- judges with no identification except a bar code. Together, the chef-judges establish the judging criteria for the category and then evaluate the products independently in private cubicles using proprietary software. The judges’ scores are captured electronically and tabulated by the computer to determine the category winner. Only one product in each food or food-related category is selected as an ACI Award winner.

Each year ACI’s chef-panels judge hundreds of categories containing thousands of products to bestow the ACI Awards for Best Taste (retail food and beverage), Best Product (retail food-related equipment) and Best of Class (professional foodservice food and equipment).

About American Culinary Institute
Headquartered in San Francisco, Calif., the American Culinary Institute judges food products and culinary equipment via panels of accredited, independent professional chefs to determine the best food and culinary brands in America through secure, blind testing procedures. The ACI chef-based organization was founded in 1985 and has established both a highly trained Chef-Judging Panel and a National Chef Board of culinary leaders who voluntarily support the organization’s mission of honoring the best products in America. When consumers and culinary professionals see the ACI Best Taste, Best Product or Best of Class Award on food and culinary products for retail and foodservice products, they know that it has passed the rigorous tests applied by the ACI chef-based judging panel to uncover and honor the best products in the marketplace. For more information, please visit www.chefsbest.org.