Welcome to SELF’s second annual Pantry Awards! We’re so glad you’re right here—and hope you got here with a hearty urge for food.

We created the Pantry Awards with a transparent mission: to focus on the packaged meals we not solely rely on, however that additionally convey us pleasure. Maybe that pleasure stems from the best way a colourful tin of olive oil brightens up your kitchen counter. Or possibly, for you, it’s just a little extra sensible: You’ve lastly discovered the proper fast meal after a late evening at work (boxed mac and cheese that packs a shocking quantity of protein). Meals sustains us—bodily, sure, however emotionally too—and we wish to have a good time it in all of its snackable, delectable crunch and glory.

On this yr’s Pantry Awards, you’ll meet 74 winners throughout three overarching classes: Snacks, Crackers, Chips, and Bites; Sauces, Spreads, Oils, and Condiments; and Pantry Staples, or the objects that may function a base for any meal. We even have a number of new tales that can assist you put these winners to work, all beneath the final theme of Make It Straightforward. In It’s Time to Overcome Your Worry of Tinned Fish, one author makes a convincing argument for anybody cautious of the handy and nutritious canned good to get on board. In 8 Wholesome and Scrumptious ‘Recipes’ You Can Shortly Throw Collectively, a registered dietitian created a bunch of easy however artistic methods to mix a few of our award winners for quick and filling dishes. And eventually, in Retailer-Purchased Sauce Is the Secret to Not-Boring, Wholesome Weeknight Meals, we share a modest proposal for straightforward house cooking: Throw a bunch of sauce on it (“it” being completely something in any respect).

Earlier than you actually dive in, we wished to share a fast behind-the-scenes have a look at how we landed on our 74 spectacular winners. We spend a number of months engaged on the Pantry Awards, and that each one begins with opening up submissions to manufacturers. You’ll be able to learn these pointers, which we publish on self.com, right here. We obtained 533 submissions this yr and combed by means of every one, narrowing down the record by eradicating objects that felt impractical or inaccessible or antithetical to our values. (Are they simple to buy wherever within the nation? Are they bought at a good worth level—and truly price what they price? Are they cloaked in dangerous weight-reduction plan tradition messaging—or “low-calorie” swaps which might be simply plain disgusting?) We determined to name in 422 merchandise for testing. Some went on to individuals’s properties—we recruited a gaggle of SELF staffers, registered dietitians, cooks, foodies, and residential cooks to check out this stuff of their day by day lives—and a few got here to the SELF workplace in New York Metropolis.