Icy Waters and Trident Seafoods were declared the winners of the 2026 Seafood Excellence Awards at Seafood Expo North America/Seafood Processing North America in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A.
Bedford, New Hampshire, U.S.A.-based Icy Waters won the “Best New Retail Product” award for its Coconut Margarita Haddock by The Good Fish Company. The new product is an Atlantic haddock fillet crusted with an everything topping and a tequila, coconut, and lime sauce inspired by the popular cocktail. The fish comes with a sauce packet to apply at the final stage of cooking and comes in a 6-ounce single serving size. Icy Waters also won last year for the same award.
“People say, ‘can lightning strike twice?’ And it just really feels that way right now,” Icy Waters Partner and Co-Founder Padraig Murphy said. “It’s very exciting; We’re a little bit overwhelmed with it because you’re like, okay, what did we do last year that was so great? How can we duplicate that? We’re going to come back and [with] all the hard work that you put in throughout the year with the research and development – to be able to do it twice; it’s just an incredible feeling.”
Murphy added that consumers will be wowed when tasting the product, and noticed judges clean their plates in the round.
“This is an amazing flavor profile,” Murphy said. “When the sauce hits your mouth, your mouth just explodes. It’s incredible.”
Seattle, Washington, U.S.A.-based Trident Seafoods won the “Best New Foodservice Product” award for its Crispy Battered Sauceable Nuggets, made with whole fillets of wild Alaska pollock and coated in a golden, crunchy batter.
“We definitely worked hard to find solutions for our consumers, customers, and operators, and really thought about how they can use the product in multiple ways and make it their own easily while we deliver excellence and performance,” Trident Seafoods Director of Corporate Research and Development Olga Semenovich told SeafoodSource. “The team got the task and were able to find the perfect balance of all the ingredients to get that long hold time with any sauce.”
Judging of the finalists took place at Seafood Expo North America/Seafood Processing North America at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center on 15 March. This year’s judges were Albertson’s Sourcing Director for Seafood Anthony Snow, Hissho Sushi Director of Food Service Operations Tim Gill, and SGC Foodservice Director of Proteins Mark Hogan.
Of the 108 products entered into the Seafood Expo North American New Product Showcase – which highlights new products, condiments, and dishes launched in the last year – 12 were selected as finalists based on their uniqueness and appropriateness to the market, taste profile, market potential, convenience, nutritional value, and originality.
The winners, as well as all 108 of the products entered into the competition, can be viewed at the New Product Showcase in the Wave Makers' Zone (Booth #3165) through the end of the show on 17 March.
Produced by Diversified, the Seafood Excellence Awards is the sister competition of the Seafood Excellence Global Awards, which features products from across the globe. That competition will be held this year at Seafood Expo Global, which will take place in Barcelona, Spain, from 21 to 23 April. Diversified also hosts the Seafood Excellence Asia Awards competition at its Seafood Expo Asia in Singapore, taking place from 2 to 4 September. [Editor’s note: Diversified also owns and operates SeafoodSource.]
