The winners have been announced for this year’s Irish Quality Food and Drink Awards with James Whelan Butchers celebrating their Gold Award win – beating more than 1,000 products in 85 categories.
The Dry Cure Rack of Bacon won the ultimate award but three other producers won Gold awards too: The Gold Small Producer award went to Meere’s Square White Pudding from Meere’s Pork Products; The Gold Value Q Winner went to Dunnes Stores My Family Favourites 4 Irish Beef Quarter Pounders from Kepak and the Gold Christmas Q award went to Dunnes Stores Simply Better Stuffed Fresh Irish Turkey Breast Joint from Hogan’s Farm.
Wildberry Bakery’s Orange and Almond Cake won the prestigious Small Producer of the Year award sponsored by Tesco Ireland, and judged by a team from the company. In addition to the award, Tesco Ireland will provide them with a prize of €2,500 and a place on the next Tesco Taste Bud supplier development programme run in partnership with Bord Bia.
Wildberry Bakery will receive mentoring from the Taste Bud team and participate in a seven-month programme of workshops helping the company to secure, grow and maintain a listing with Tesco.
The winners were announced by Irish celebrity Chef and proprietor of restaurant L’Ecrivain Derry Clarke, on 16th September at the Round Room, Mansion House, in Dublin.
Over 350 food and drink products were shortlisted in 85 categories. The awards were open to all food and drink retailers, producers and manufacturers across the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.
The Exiles Irish Gin was awarded The Irish Quality Drink Award Gold from Avalon Group Inc.
These prestigious accolades, now in their third year, set out to recognise excellence in food and drink product development from a wide variety of companies across Ireland.
The awards repeated last year’s trade-media partnership with Retail News magazine, and consumer-media partnership with Easy Food magazine.
The awards themselves are organised into two distinct sections: Quality Food Awards – products for the multiple and independent grocery retail market and Quality Drink Awards – alcoholic drinks for the retail sector.
Organised by Metropolis Business Media, group events manager Lara Newton comments: “This has been the most exciting year for all of us here at the Irish Quality Food and Drink Awards – we have been absolutely amazed at the incredibly high standard of both the food and drink put forward this year. It has been a difficult job for our teams of expert judges but we are very proud of all our winners and finalists and hope their success will help them grow their business and reward their dedication and hard work.”
Headline sponsor for the awards is innovative packaging company Graphic Packaging International.
The awards are also sponsored by the Coeliac Society of Ireland, who played an important role during the stringent judging process of the ‘Free From’ categories, Dairymaid, Invest Northern Ireland and Tesco.
A selection of shortlisted and winning products will be showcased at the Food & Hospitality Ireland exhibition on September 16th-17th in Dublin.
Full details about the awards are available at irish.qualityfoodawards.com. Make sure you stay up to date with the latest news and competitions via the IQFA Facebook page at www.facebook.com/IrishQualityFoodAwards and on Twitter @IrishQFAs, #IQFA.
Tags: Avoca Butcher, Dry Cure Rack of Bacon, Gold Q Award 2015, Irish Quality Food and Drink Awards, James Whelan Butchers, Tipperary Food
