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Savour’s Auda Finan Takes Top Honour as Kiwi Plant-Based Food Shines

2 minutes ago
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A dairy-free take on classic Kiwi onion dip and a founder who loves experimenting have given New Zealand’s plant-based food sector something to celebrate. Savour Vegan Creamery founder Auda Finan has been named Food Technologist/Developer of the Year at the 2026 New Zealand Food Awards, with Savour’s Onion winning gold in the Chilled/Frozen category and Butta collecting silver.


Finan founded Savour in 2017, turning her interest in cultured plant foods into an Auckland business. Its range includes cultured cashew cheeses, butter alternatives, dips and yoghurt, with fermentation helping develop flavour and texture. The appeal is easy to understand: familiar foods that give people eating dairy-free more choice at the table.


The personal award recognises the skill behind those products. Judges praised Finan’s technical excellence, creativity and leadership in developing foods for consumers with different dietary preferences. For a founder without a formal food technology background, the recognition carried particular weight. As she put it: “Everything comes from a place of passion.”


Onion’s gold is especially satisfying. A much-loved Kiwi dip has been reworked for dairy-free eaters and earned recognition in a mainstream food competition. For PFN, that is an encouraging signal: plant-based innovation can connect through everyday pleasures—a shared platter, a familiar flavour, something worth taking to a gathering.


There was more good news across the awards. Taste of the Alps took the Supreme Award for its Sichuan Pickled Central Otago Cherries, while be happy chocolate’s vegan white chocolate also earned the Technical Innovation Award. Different products, but a shared reminder of what local makers can achieve through curiosity and craft. Savour and Finan have given us a particularly good reason to raise a cracker.


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