Packaging Innovation Contest De Gouden Noot

The world’s most competitive packaging innovation contest

The first edition of packaging innovation contest De Gouden Noot (‘The Golden Walnut’) was held in the year 1958. By organising De Gouden Noot, NVC Packaging Centre stimulates truly holistic innovation in packaging worldwide. The contest name is reflected in the unique winner’s trophy. This contains a walnut made of solid gold (pictured above): the symbol of being the Number One in packaging innovation.

Holistic innovation implies that there are no specific categories for entries. Each entry is judged on its over-all innovativeness. From all entries of one specific contest edition, exactly ten finalists are chosen after the first jury round. These are published on a global scale for comments by anyone. In the subsequent second jury round, each entry is presented face-to-face by the participant to the full jury. After that, the jury decides in consensus which innovation  deserves to win the Gold and who win Silver and Bronze.

The phenomenal apotheosis is the Award Ceremony, live-streamed globally from the iconic ADAM Tower in Amsterdam. Starting with an overview of all ten finalists, the winner of the Gold is announced, after those who have won Bronze and Silver.

Finalists of the 32^nd edition will be promoted by NVC Packaging Centre at key international events, conferences and exhibitions, notably Empack2025, Fachpack2025 and interpack2026.

Winners and finalists De Gouden Noot 32^nd edition
The Award Ceremony of the 32^nd edition took place on Thursday 10 October 2024. View the livestream here. Gold winner was PACKSYS GmbH with their Ophthalmic plus bottle: an innovatively designed eyedropper bottle for older as well as younger people. Silver went to DS Smith's Lift Up: a well thought out multipack for PET bottles. Bronze was for Berlin Packaging with their BUNCKER Pro Line Heavy for safe storage and transport of lithium batteries. View these winners and the other seven finalists here.

Registration for De Gouden Noot 33^rd edition
Registration for the 33^rd edition of packaging innovation contest De Gouden Noot is open now and will close on 3 April 2026 or as soon as the maximum of fourty (40) entries is reached. Register now here or contact Corné Huijben at NVC Packaging Centre.