Last night was the Gala dinner for The Canadian Liver Foundation’s LIVERight Awards competition. The awards are a stamp of approval from the Liver Foundation to food manufacturers that rise to the challenge of creating delicious and convenient foods that meet health and nutritional standards. The annual award program was created to raise awareness of North America’s most prevalent form of liver disease, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), also known as fatty liver disease. According to Liver Foundation President Gary Fagan, “An estimated 1.4 million Canadians have fatty liver disease from poor nutrition and inactivity.” The awards are especially aimed at the growing health concern of childhood obesity and the appearance of the disease in children. One of the judging panels involved a group of grade four students who lent their palates to this worthy cause. The other judging panel included myself along with a number of nutrition and food experts. Blind judging of various categories took place at the Palais Royal in Toronto last week. The entrants were foods from large manufacturers as well as small grass roots businesses. My favourite entry was Pita Break's Breakfast Pita, the Apple Cinnamon flavour won for best breakfast item, but the Muesli and Orange Cranberry flavour are equally delicious! Here are some pics of the judges at work:

Here's me daring Executive Chef of Palais Royale, Steffan Howard, to be the first to try this chunky questionable looking elixir. Theresa Albert, host of the Food Network's series Just One Bite and Nutritionist Judy Scott Welden having a giggle. It's not all work! Winnie Chiu, Director for the Compliments Culinary Centre at George Brown College, and I assess the entrants One of the junior judges with a "Simon Cowell-esque" assessment!