The Sofi Awards are presented by the not-for-profit Specialty Food Association (SFA), the leading membership trade association in the $175 billion specialty food industry.

Lewis Road Creamery’s 10 Star Grass Fed butter was blind-tasted alongside other premium and specialty butters to take gold in the dairy category, which covered all domestic and imported butters available in the United States.

The grass-fed, traditionally churned butter is made from cream exclusively off Lewis Road’s parent Southern Pastures’ own farms, which meets stringent and independently-audited 10 Star Certified Values that cover grass-fed, free-range, animal welfare, environmental sustainability and climate change mitigation criteria.

The 10 Star butter is exported and sold in high-end grocery stores including Whole Foods, Erewhon, Bristol Farms, and Central Markets across the USA where it is usually the most expensive butter. Lewis Road’s 10 Star Export butter is also available in Aotearoa New Zealand supermarkets, where it’s sold at a discount to domestic shoppers to reflect and promote its home provenance.

The Sofi winners were selected by a panel of food experts from nearly 2,000 entries across 53 product categories. The butters were judged on taste – including flavor, appearance, texture and aroma – ingredient quality, and innovation. All tastings were anonymous and held at the Rutgers Food Innovation Center at Rutgers University.

“The quality of our grass-fed butter is obvious from its colour,” says Lewis Road Creamery’s Lynette Maan. “It’s a rich golden yellow compared to other paler butter from cows fed on palm-kernel expeller, grains and supplementary feed. But we’re equally proud of the things you can’t see – the climate change mitigation practices we’re committed to on our farms to sequester carbon in soil and contribute to a healthier planet as well as a healthier butter.”

The 10 Star butter is also a finalist in the Sofi awards Product of the Year which will be announced in June.