Najla’s® Inc., a specialty food company that hand-crafts cookies, spiced nuts, toffee and all –natural snacks has been awarded TWO Silver Finalist honors in the 2008 National Association for the Specialty Food Trade (NASFT) sofi™ Awards Competition. ( sofi™ is short for Specialty Outstanding Food Innovation).

Najla’s Gone Chunky Chocolate Walnut Expresso was selected in the Outstanding Cookie category and Najla’s Nibbles™Assortment in the newly added category of Outstanding Perishable Foodservice Product. There were close to 1500 submissions across 32 categories that were tasted and judged in April at the NASFT offices in NYC. A total of 141 products were selected as Silver Finalists.

Submissions were judged on numerous attributes including quality, innovation, packaging, ingredient profile and pricing. The judges were: Kara Rubin, Whole Foods Market, Brian D. Caplan, Bacchus Wine & Spirits, Stephanie Cook, Raley’s, Christina Pirello, host of Christina Cooks, Shirley Cheng, Culinary Institute of America, Robert Sickles, Sickles Market, Michelle Cosmo, Crate & Barrel and Fran Carpentier, Parade Magazine.

The final round of judging to determine the sofi™ Gold winner in each category takes place Sunday, June 29 at the Summer Fancy Food Show in New York City.