The idols of New Zealand’s supermarket shelves were announced last night at a glittering Awards evening for the inaugural Foodtown Magazine People’s Choice Awards.

From Steinlager to Sanitarium Weetbix, Tip Top Vanilla Ice Cream to Vogel’s Original Mixed Grain Bread and Wattie’s Baked Beans, the old favourites are still among the top choices when it comes to naming our favourite supermarket products.

In one of the most popular supermarket awards campaigns ever run, The Foodtown Magazine People’s Choice Awards drew entries from thousands of shoppers at Foodtown and Woolworths supermarkets.

Readers were asked to name 63 of their favourite products and brands in 15 different categories from tea to dairy, cereal to canned goods, frozen foods to confectionary. Many of the winners have been favourites with Kiwis for years, although a number of new products have tempted our taste buds in recent times and joined the list of people’s choices.

Editor of The Foodtown Magazine, Jan Bilton said: “The awards, while embracing traditional New Zealand favourites, reflect the increasing interest and more adventurous attitude of Kiwis towards food.”

The People’s Choice Awards were launched in the October 2003 issue of The Foodtown Magazine. Staff and auditors were overwhelmed with the response from readers and spent the Christmas break determining the winners. Any product stocked at Foodtown or Woolworths was eligible and the product that received the most votes in each category was the winner.

Winners will be able to display the gold People’s Choice Awards stickers on their products, enabling shoppers to easily pick the products that have the most ‘consumer appeal’.

The Foodtown Magazine is currently one of New Zealand’s leading food publications and the new glossy lifestyle format launched over two years ago has given the magazine credibility and encouraged high brand awareness. The magazine has been the fastest growing publication by circulation for the last twelve months in New Zealand, and has a readership of 204,000.

The People’s Choice Awards will be presented at a formal dinner at Auckland’s Heritage Hotel in early March.