2021 Galliova Awards announces awards date, entry deadline

Last year, the Galliova Awards were adapted to accommodate the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on both the South African media sector and on the awards themselves. Entry criteria and award prizes were amended and the Galliova Awards event was held virtually.

This year, the awards event will also be held virtually on 15 October to suit the changing media industry and Covid-19 safety protocols. Sapa said that it hopes in 2022, food and health journalists will be able to come together again and enjoy the full Galliova Awards experience.

Adjustments to entry criteria and prize allocation

The 32nd Galliova Awards will honour excellence food and health media journalism within the following categories:
- Galliova Food Champion
- Galliova Health Writer
- Galliova Egg Champion
- Galliova Broiler Champion
- Digital Food Influencer

The Sapa board and the Galliova Awards’ judges made several changes to the entry criteria and prize allocation for this year’s awards. The association says it is aware of the ongoing challenges facing the media sector following the closure of several magazines in 2020 and the relaunching of certain titles in 2021, and it is demonstrating its commitment to the industry by allocating over R136,000 in cash prizes for the 2021 Galliova Award winners.

The new award category piloted in 2020 for invited digital food influencers who host a popular digital food platform via a blog, Facebook or Instagram page, or all three, will be continued this year and will now include cash prizes for first, second and third place.

Cash prizes will once again be awarded for the best food and health print articles (published between November 2020 and October 2021) and food and health online articles (published between November 2020 and August 2021) that meet the entry requirements of the four other awards categories. Due to declining entries for the up-and-coming writer award, this category has not been included in 2021. It will, however, be reconsidered in future.

Three renowned food journalists and influencers representing a cross-section of South African cultures and with first-hand experience of excellent food journalism, will join two registered dietitians and two representatives of the egg and broiler sectors of Sapa on the judges panel. The panel will judge entries at an online event scheduled for the end of September.

Sapa said this judging event forms a critical part of its efforts to ensure transparency and fairness in the judging process. “In addition, an inaugural online judges’ briefing will also be held this year, at the end of August, to clarify the ongoing changes in the media landscape, and awards criteria and scoring,” it said.