The judging was undertaken with the participation of 17 WPO members plus one member of the international trade press. The countries represented in the judging process were: Brazil, Austria, Australia, US, South Africa, Norway, Spain, UK, India, Sri Lanka, (not judging) Kenya, Croatia, Turkey, Singapore, Indonesia , China, South Korea  and Hungary.

The judging panel judged 276 packages, from 35 countries, which entered the competition prior to September 18th, 2015. “As some of our members conduct their own packaging competition later in the year, and as a result of the Board Meeting taking place earlier than normally, we decided to extend the closing date to October 30th. Entries received prior to this date will be judged by the same members but, in an online voting process”, explains Thomas Schneider, President of WPO.
 
In this first stage of WorldStar judging the following entries were judged in the various categories:
 
•    Beverage – 57 entries
•    Electronic – 9 entries
•    Food – 69 entries
•    Health & Beauty – 38 entries
•    Household – 12 entries
•    Luxury – 14 entries
•    Pharmaceutical & Medical – 14 entries
•    Other – 21 entries
•    Point of Sale – 14 entries
•    Transit – 28 entries

All the winners will be announced at the beginning of December 2015 and the Award Ceremony is planned for 26 May 2016, in Budapest (Hungary). “It wouldn’t be fair to announce the winners of the first stage, not having judged all the entries. In fact the competition is still in process, so each winner will receive an official notification, from WPO, in December”, adds Schneider.
Packages eligible for WorldStar are those that have already received a national award recognized by WPO.