Article 1 – GOALS
The Egyptian Typical Food Products Contest is in line with the orientations of the Egyptian Industrial Development Strategy and the UNIDO contributions to the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG).
The main objectives of the contest are:
1. To encourage quality improvement and adding value to typical products, by acknowledging the advantages of a given product as compared to similar ones;
2. To develop and/or strengthen ties between producers of local products of Egypt, buyers and consumers (national and international);
3. To display Egypt`s finest typical products and to promote a typical brand image with consumers, national and international purchasing organizations and media, to boost marketing and exports;
4. To help modernize the typical products sector through an enhanced organization, by fueling a shift from a traditional sector to a modern one, while preserving the typicality of the product.
Article 2 – ORGANIZERS
The Egyptian Typical Food Products Contest is organized by the Ministry of Trade and Industry through the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency (MSMEDA), Industrial Modernization Center (IMC), Chamber of Food Industries (CFI), and Food Export Council (FEC).
The Egyptian Typical Food Products Contest is supervised by a strategic committee established on 16 February 2021 based on a decision made by H.E Minister of Trade and Industry NO. 87 / 2021. The strategic committee members are:
- Ministry of Social Solidarity
- Ministry of Supply & Internal Trading
- Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation
- Ministry of Environment
- Ministry of Tourism
- Head of Development projects council
- Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency (MSMEDA)
- Industrial Modernization Center (IMC)
- Chamber of Food Industries (CFI)
- Food Export Council (FEC)
- United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO)
The contest is carried out in partnership with the project PAMPAT (Project for Access to Markets of Agri-Food and Local Products) implemented by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and funded by the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO).
Article 3: PRODUCTS ELIGIBLE FOR THE CONTEST
3.1 General framework 1 - The products admitted are the typical food products recognized as such and meeting the following criteria:
- To be identified by the national studies of identification and characterization of typical food products;
- Be processed, packaged, reproducible food products available for sale in sufficient quantity;
- Be food products from processing and packaging units and/or workshops that respect good manufacturing practices and good hygiene practices;
- At least 80% of the raw material used for the production of the final product presented to the contest comes from the same production area (the producers fill in, during the registration, a form in which the different ingredients and the recipe of the product are detailed). However, in the case of cereal-based products, a rate of 60% of the raw material used coming from the same production area is authorized.
- Should have to completely comply to the definition of MSMEs placed by the new MSMEs law No. 152 for the year 2020, and all benefits that the winner will receive from MSMEDA as a result of winning the competition will be subject to MSMEDA applied rules and regulations.
2 - The products certified organic or any other related food certifications are automatically admitted to the contest.
3 - For all other products, A specific Product Approval Task Force is set up to analyze all the subscription forms received and in case of doubts the final decision on the acceptability of the product is taken by the Contest steering committee
4 - Physicochemical and organoleptic analyses, according to national and/or international standards, may be carried out for products showing anomalies and/or for products for which the contest organizational committee has doubts about the quality of the product and/or the raw materials used (for example pollen and water for honey).
The contest steering committee is the only organization authorized to validate or refuse the registration of a typical product in the contest.
3.2 Categories and types of products admitted
1 – Products must be cooked and prepared. Any product that has to be processed before tasting is refused.
2 - The products admitted must be able to be included in one of the following categories:
A) Sweets and processed Fruits;
B) Dairy products;
C) Meat and fish products;
D) Vegetables, oils and aromatic herbs;
E) Grains and cereals products.
3.3. Region
Concerning the origin of the raw materials and the place of processing (Articles 3.4 and 3.5 below), the concept of region is defined according to the geographical area of the governorates of Egypt.
3.4. Origin of raw materials
At least 80% of the raw materials used in the product must come from the governorate concerned. In addition, basic seasonings such as salt, pepper and common herbs (without reference to a foreign country or region) are allowed.
3.5 Production/manufacturing/processing
The production/processing must take place in the region of origin of the product, or exceptionally in an adjacent area based on the industrial or commercial license or equivalent documents for the production entities placed in the investment areas. The organizational committee is competent in this matter and may grant derogations in special cases.
3.6 Commercial Names
The commercial name of the product must not contain:
- Names of exotic products, except if they are secondary flavours.
- Names of places outside Egypt.
- Reference to a product typical of a region outside Egypt, especially if there is international protection for this product. Example: Feta cheese, Parmesan cheese: refused.
Article 4: CATEGORIES OF PRODUCERS
The contest is open to all producers of Egyptian typical food products: Farmers, individual producers, cooperatives, processing companies, etc. The essential condition is that the product has a verifiable and recognized link with the production area.
The producers are classified into two categories:
1. Producers and organizations: individual producers, cooperatives, MSMEs, unions and consortiums whose main activity is the production, processing and marketing of local products;
2. Companies and private operators: whose activity is the production, processing and marketing of local products.
The products will be analyzed and tasted according to the same evaluation grid.
Article 5: REGISTRATION PROCEDURES
5.1 Registration
Producers register their products by filling in the registration form in full and sending it to Industrial Modernization Center (IMC) or the Egyptian Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency (MSMEDA) via their branches. Or fill in the registration form in full via the contest website.
For each product, the producer fills in a separate registration form.
Along with the registration form, the producer must send a sample of the product label attesting to the ingredients of the product submitted, as well as its date of manufacture and expiry. The admission or rejection of the products depends on the accuracy of the information provided by the producer. The data provided on the bulletin will be used as a basis for the elaboration of certificates and other printed material.
5.2. Refusal
In case of refusal of one or more products, the organizer informs the producer by mail via the branches of Industrial Modernization Center (IMC), the Egyptian Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency (MSMEDA) or via email.
5.3. Admissions and confirmations
A letter confirming the products admitted is sent to the producers by mail via the branches of Industrial Modernization Center (IMC), the Egyptian Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency (MSMEDA) or via email. This letter contains all the information necessary to prepare and send the admitted products for tasting.
Article 6: DELIVERY OF ACCEPTED PRODUCTS AND DEADLINES
6.1. Deadlines for deliveries
The admitted products, accompanied by the documents required in the confirmation letter, must be delivered to the following addresses:
Industrial Modernization Center (IMC) :
- Head Office: 1195 Nile Corniche - Building of Federation of Egyptian Industries - Second Floor, Cairo.
- Assuit: Gouda El Asady St. - Omda Tower - 5th floor - apartment 9
- Alexandria: Kamal El Din Salah St. off Edmon Fremon - Smouha
- El Sadat: Sadat City - Investors Assembly Building - First Residential Area
- 6th of October: 9 Rehan St. - West of Somid - Area 14 - Block 9 behind 6th of October Governorate Building
- Sheraton: 11 Mohamed Metwaly El Shaarawy St. - Sheraton
- 10th of Ramadan: 10th of Ramadan Dawaar - opposite Dawaar's mosque - Industrial Area A
- Obour: Block No. 19051 - Area No. 8 Saad Zaghloul Square - Fourth Quarter
- Fayoum: Batal El Salam St. Bahary Bridge
- Mansoura: 15 Falaky St. - Torel - Mansoura
- Menya: Building of Industrial Zone Development Authority - El Matahen East - Menya
- Borg El Arab: 8 El Serag El Mounir - Megawra 6 - First Residential Quarter - New Borg El Arab City
- Bani Swaif: 44 Cairo - Menya Road. Opposite Nahda University - New
- Bani Swaif Portsaid: 18 Ryad and Abdel Salam Aref - Haram Building
- Damietta: 25/32 Gamal Abdel Nasser St. - Area 2 - Fourth Quarter - New Damietta
- Souhag: Gomhoreya St. Mohandessin Tower - Fifth Floor
- Tanta: Eemar Tower - El Geish St. Second Floor - Apartment 2
- Quesna: Mobarak Industrial Area - Administrative Building - Second Floor - Quesna - Monofeya
The schedules for the delivery of products are communicated to the branches of the Industrial Modernization Center (IMC) or the Egyptian Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency (MSMEDA).
6.2. Quality and freshness
It is the producer's responsibility to ensure the quality of the products delivered, particularly concerning compliance with the cold chain.
Samples that, upon receipt, show qualitative defects or alterations that could influence the result of the tasting, are declared non-conforming and are refused. A letter to this effect will be sent to the producer via email.
Rejected or non-compliant samples, as well as untasted samples, are not returned to the producer. All samples entered in the competition remain the property of the organizers.
6.3. Volume of the samples
The samples must be supplied in their original bottle or packaging, uncut. The necessary weight/volume must allow for a double tasting, as well as the possible sampling for quality control.
The minimum required should correspond to approximately 12 portions. Examples: 500 g of fresh, soft or hard cheese, 500 g of couscous, 2x250 ml oil, 2 x 250 g of jam, 2 x 250 g honey…etc
Article. 7 QUALITY CONTROLS
The producer certifies that his product meets the legal requirements. He/She must at all times be able to ensure the traceability of the components of the product.
The Egyptian Typical Food Products Contest organizers reserve the right to take samples for analysis by an approved laboratory. The producer undertakes to make available all the information necessary to carry out a qualitative and quantitative control at the place of production, by an inspection body mandated by the organizers. In case of non-conformity, the medal can be withdrawn at any time by the organizers.
Article 8: JURY AND TASTING
Juries are formed for each category. Each jury is composed of 3 tasters, as follows: 1 tasting specialist, 1 producer or representative of the sector and 1 consumer.
The juries are chaired by professionals active in the field of sensory evaluation. The organizers among juries ensure that all governorates of Egypt are well represented.
The tasting procedure is identical for each category. It is described in a tasting guideline. The tastings are carried out blind. To ensure the quality of the tasting, double tastings can be carried out.
The samples are scored on a 20-point scale, according to the sight (how the product is presented), the smell, the taste and the global evaluation. No appeal is possible against the decisions of the jury and the medal awarded.
Article 9: RESULTS AND DISTINCTIONS
For each product presented, the producers will receive details of the scores and the results obtained, together with any qualitative comments.
Ratings and medals
Each tasting table has a maximum of 30% medals for all the products tasted. Gold, Silver and Bronze medals are awarded according to the results obtained.
- 19 -20 points: Gold Medal
- 18 points: Silver Medal
- 17 points: Bronze Medal
Award of Excellence
For each category of products, a special jury designates an excellence prize for each category among the products having obtained a gold medal. The Prize of Excellence can only be awarded to a product whose processing unit has obtained the approval or authorization issued by the National Authority for Food Safety (NFSA) and for which a sufficient quantity is available for its marketing at the national level and/or it is export.
Article 10. STICKER MEDALS
The contest organizers will provide the producer with the number of self-adhesive medals corresponding to the annual production of the awarded product. It can only be affixed to a product corresponding to the one entered in the competition, and this for two years following the tasting (until the Egyptian Typical food products contest 2023). The use of the medals implies the acceptance of the terms of use included in the medal contract.
Article 11. ACCEPTANCE OF THE CONDITIONS
By signing the registration form, producers agree to abide by these rules. The organizers are authorized to eliminate products that do not comply with the regulations.