After two months of polling, our readers have chosen Food Processing’s 2026 R&D Teams of the Year: Ajinomoto Foods North America, Goodles and Mighty Spark.

633 votes were cast in the three company-size categories. In the large category (sales of more than $750 million) Ajinomoto Foods North America beat out Cuisine Solutions and PepsiCo. Goodles defeated Fermented Foods Holdings in the medium-size category (sales of $100-750 million) and Mighty Spark was alone in the small category (sales of less than $100 million) because its opponent dropped out just as the poll went live.

To persuade voters, each company supplied a 125-word essay telling why their product development team is so wonderful. All the races were close (well, except for Mighty Spark’s category) and all of the runners-up deserve kudos for having great R&D teams. Our thanks to all the teams for participating.

We will be profiling all three winners over the next two months, starting with Mighty Spark in about two weeks.

Feeling left out? Apologies if you wish your R&D team had participated this year, but even now is not too early to get your name in for next year’s competition. Send an email to Editor Dave Fusaro.