The New Zealand Vegan Sausage Awards

Celebrating the craft and skill of Vegan sausage makers throughout Aotearoa.

Vegan Sausage Awards

Who doesn’t love a breakfast banger? A summer sausage sizzle?

In 2019 we brought you the first of our Awards to celebrate the humble vegan sausage. We had an amazing array of competitors from home and abroad, showcasing their sausages, hotdogs and sausage rolls. Our 2020 Awards were even more popular and our third and fourth awards in 2021 and 2022 once again produced some surprising winners!

Calling all sausage makers!

For the fifth time, our annual vegan Sausage Awards are being held – at the end of June in Auckland. This year we have added two new categories:

Deli Meats – Pastrami

Deli Meats – Other

Now we can choose amongst pastrami, ham, bacon, cutlets, turkey/chicken slices, and whatever other vegan deli meats are available in New Zealand.

As always, we welcome entries from all over the world although entries must be available to buy in Aotearoa.

If you think your favourite sausage or deli meat should be entering, let them know about our awards now!

If you make sausages or deli meats of any kind, register now for your chance to win a category award!

NB Deli Meat categories are not part of the Supreme Award – yet!

Keep on improving and increasing product lines and our awards will reflect those increased options.

  • Breakfast
  • Banger
  • Hotdog
  • Sausage roll
  • Speciality
  • Chorizo
  • NEW! Deli Meat – Pastrami
  • NEW! Deli Meat – All types
  • Supreme

Meet the Judges 2023

Helping us discover the best vegan bangers in NZ!
Jasbir Kaur
Plabita Florence
Fred Wong
Tom-Sainsbury-guest-judge

Multi-award-winning executive chef & trainer, TV personality, creative head and chef of the new series “Ignite the Chef in You” and President of the NZ Chef Association Auckland, Chef Jazz is an external verifier for City and Guilds, UK.

She has been judging in New Zealand’s Regional and National culinary salon competitions for the past nine years and is deputy chief judge for the Hospitality Championships.

She has worked in top hotels and restaurants in five countries – USA, UK, India, New Zealand and Spain.

Plabita is owner and chef of Forest, one of only two vegetarian restaurants in the country to receive a hat at the Cuisine Good Food Awards 2022. She was also named Evolving Woman in Food for 2023, and nominated for both sustainability and innovation awards at this year’s Lewishams. She has a passion for creating delicious food first and foremost, and quietly sneaking in an ethos of low-waste, plant-driven innovation, with a vision to help set an alternative example for others to follow. She believes that to make a compelling argument you have to first captivate taste buds and stomachs.

I was born and raised in Hong Kong. A city which I consider to be the best in Asia for foodies, with Cantonese East-meets West cuisine.

I’ve spent time on travelling, I’ve visited the likes of Rome, Florence, Venice, Croatia, Spain, Thailand, Vietnam, Japan, Korea, China and Hong Kong. I went from an $800 per person Michelin three-stars restaurant to local street food vendors, which brought me a world of knowledge.

I like to structure my dish with 30% Japanese, 30% Asia, 40% European elements, enjoying cooking, exploring new things and new trends.

Tom is a comedian, actor and writer best known for his skits on social media. But he is also a huge animal lover, a vegan for many years, and consumes a lot of food. He may not be the best at describing umami and sausage casings but he’s very excited to be giving his opinion. 

Photos from Vegan Sausage Awards 2023

The Vegan Sausage Awards in the Media:

Check out the links below to see what others said about the 2023 winners: