“Diamond Taste Award 2025” Awarded by ITI.

“Omugishiageton” pork produced by Maple Leaf Foods Lethbridge plant has been awarded the highest rank of “Three Star” by the International Taste Institute from 2019 to 2025 consecutively. This year, we have also achieved the “Diamond Taste Award”. The Diamond Taste Award is granted to products that have been awarded “Three Star” stars 7 times over a period of 10 years. This is the first time the highest level of achievement for seven consecutive years has been attained for the category of imported pork to Japan.

What is the International Taste Institute?
The International Taste Institute is the world leader in the evaluation and certification of consumer food & beverages by professionals located in Brussels. Over 250 jury members from over 20 countries are carefully selected based on their experience in tasting. Their talents are recognized in Chef & Sommelier competitions and by renowned institutions such as Le guide Michelin and Gault & Millau. The jury members include Chefs cooking for personalities such as the French President and the Queen of England.
Products are blind-tasted. To ensure an objective evaluation, the jury is unaware of product brand names, producer names and product origins.
Each product is evaluated for its organoleptic quality following a systematic approach based on the five International Hedonic Sensory Analysis criteria (AFNOR XP V09A standards) on a 100% scale: First Impression, vision, olfaction, taste, texture (food) or final sensation (drinks). Products participating in taste evaluations of the International Taste Institute which score above 70% are granted respectively the following Superior Taste Awards.
☆ One Star (Notable products, scoring between 70% and 80%)
☆☆ Two Star (Remarkable products, scoring between 80% and 90%)
☆☆☆ Three Star (Exceptional products, scoring above 90%)

Further information is available at the website of the International Taste Institute:
https://www.taste-institute.com/

“Omugishiageton” pork is a product of Maple Leaf Foods Lethbridge plant that is designed specifically to serve the Japan market. As with pork plants in Japan, this plant is small and places a strong focus on meat quality. The plant adopts “hot skinning” technology that is the same as Japanese skinning technology, and has more than 25 years’ experience in exporting its products to Japan.
High grade feeding as well as the hog farmers dedication raising their hogs from birth to finishing stage provide us very high quality meat pork. High marbling and whitish fat pursued according to the taste of Japanese people is extremely excellent as a “taste” that convinces not only Japanese people but also the tongues of active chefs who are active on the front lines. It was objectively proved to be.

Lethbridge’s pork has been certified as the best taste pork in the world by the International Taste Institute and we promise to maintain the supply of this exceptional product to the Japan market.

News articles introducing our product is here. (Note: Japanese)

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