Bakkafrost, DOM International win 2022 Seafood Excellence Awards

Bakkafrost won the 2022 “Best New Foodservice” Seafood Excellence Award for its Native Hebridean Smoked Scottish Salmon Side and DOM International Limited was awarded the “Best New Retail” prize for its DOM Reserve Salmon Poke at Seafood Expo North America on Sunday, 13 March.

Glyvrar, Faroe Islands-based Bakkafrost and its subsidiary, The Scottish Salmon Company, are selling the award-winning product through their websites and are seeking further distribution “in line with production,” Bakkafrost Scotland Communications and New Business Development Director Su Cox told SeafoodSource. Cox described the product as having “microlocal” provenance.

“It’s totally unique because it's salmon that smoked from our native Hebridean fish, which are originally from wild rootstock from the Hebridean Islands, right on the northwest of Scotland,” Cox said. “We now farm-raise these and process and smoke them locally. And the smoking process is also very special. The Hebridean salmon smokes beautifully because it's firm, not oily, and you get good consistent colors.”

Scarborough, Ontario, Canada-based DOM International Limited is selling its poke product through Costco and Metro supermarkets across Canada.

“It's been an item that we've been looking at developing for several years now. It’s gone through different variations … then we thought, the important part is the salmon. So we decided, well, let's just do the salmon and let everybody else fix it and eat it the way they want it,” DOM International Domenic Porporo told SeafoodSource. “We've been we've been really focusing hard on new products. We have a whole slew of ideas and now it's just trying to getting them to getting them to a position where we can just pull the trigger on them.”

The winners were selected from a group of 11 finalists during a live judging on Sunday morning by a panel of seafood buyers and industry experts from the retail and foodservice industries, including representatives of BJ’s, Albertsons, and Levy Restaurants. The finalists were selected from products in the Seafood Expo North America New Product Showcase, which features seafood products, condiments, and culinary dishes launched in the past year by exhibiting companies. The products were judged based on several criteria, including uniqueness and appropriateness to the market, taste profile, market potential, convenience, nutritional value, and originality.

Seafood Expo North America/Seafood Processing North America, taking place 13 to 15 March, 2022, in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A., is produced by Diversified Communications.

Photo courtesy of Cliff White/SeafoodSource