By Nicole Potenza Denis, CM Reinhardt & Susan Segrest

The six leading specialty, supermarket and natural food retailers who visited the NASFT offices in April and June might have thought they died and went to specialty food heaven.

Waiting for them were 3,000-plus products that temporarily took over the offices at 120 Wall Street—entries in the 34th Annual Product Awards Competition. Comprising everything from pomegranate ice cream to domestic prosciutto, from a 50-pound wheel of Vermont Cheddar to Italian pasta sauce studded with black truffles, these hopeful stars were all hoping to be crowned as the top products of 2006.

This year, the Competition was separated into two phases—Part 1 took place in April and determined Finalists in 19 of the 20 categories. Part 2, which solicited 520 entries for Outstanding New Product 2006, took place in June.

Representatives from six retailers from across the country—Jamie Brent, Wild Oats Market, Boulder, Colo.; Ken Blanchette, Fresh Direct, Long Island City, N.Y.; Maren Ammerman and Larry Uhl, West Point Market, Akron, Ohio; Sam Mogannam, Bi-Rite Market, San Francisco; Emilio Mignucci, Di Bruno Bros., Philadelphia and Chuck and Pam Richards, Reid’s Fine Foods, Charlotte, N.C.—had the daunting task of analyzing and tasting specialty food items from a total of more than 1,800 entries.

On Sunday, July 9 at the Summer Fancy Food Show® in New York City, more than 100 additional specialty food retailers, supermarket and natural food buyers judged the Finalists in all 20 categories. The following evening at the Meet the Tastemakers® Reception, the Winners were announced. —N.D.

Click on the page numbers below to read about the Winners in each category.

Nicole Potenza Denis is senior editor of Specialty Food Magazine; C.M. Reinhardt is a freelance writer and television producer specializing in foods and beverages and Susan Segrest is a writer for Marie Claire and New York Daily News and a former editor with Cosmopolitan, Mode, New Woman and Seventeen.