The Great Manitoba Food Fight (GMFF) is celebrating inventive food makers and locally made food once again this fall — but Manitobans only have two days left to apply.

Local food makers have until Friday to sign up for the GMFF, a one-day event in Winnipeg on September 21, where the top ten applicants will compete for awards and prize money, as chosen by a panel of judges.                                                         

carly gmff
Carly Minish won silver at last year's Great Manitoba Food Fight for her maple mustard. (Photo courtesy of Manitoba Agriculture)

This year marks the 10th year the GMFF has been celebrating local food products and promoting food entrepreneurs who have developed, but not fully commercialized, a new or innovative food product.

Manitoba Agriculture business development specialist Shauna McKinnon says they feel it is an important event to help local entrepreneurs commercialize their products through the available prize money.

"We at Manitoba Agriculture see food as a way to grow the ag sector in Manitoba," she says. "We like to take our entrepreneurs from selling locally, perhaps at farmers' markets, and sort of mentor them along so that they're selling throughout Manitoba, perhaps then throughout Canada, and even internationally. And we've seen a lot of our entrepreneurs grow very quickly to selling internationally and really penetrating different markets."

McKinnon says the prizes are a combination of cash and services, with gold valued at $10,000, silver at $7,000, and bronze at $3,500.

Applications and information are available on the GMFF website, or by calling 204-841-4084.