Ispini Charcuterie, a Food NI member company, has four medals including two golds for products at the prestigious British Cured Meats Awards in London.

Based on a family farm near Aughnacloy in Co. Tyrone, Ispini – the Irish name for sausage –  also won two silver medals for its handcrafted charcuterie.

Ispini, owned and run by brother and sister Jonny and Janice Cuddy, gained the following medals for its unique salami and other cured meats rom a panel of expert judges:

Gold for Mace Coppa and Garlic and Black Pepper Salami;

Silver for Paprika Coppa and Bucky Chorizo Sticks.

The British Cured Meats Awards celebrate the remarkable growth in UK charcuterie over the past five years and is supported by the Guild of Fine Food and meat specialists Cannon and Cannon.

Every producer of cured meats in the UK was invited to submit their finest cuts to be judged by the expert panel of judges for the awards and the unique Cured Meats Festival in June. The products have also won UK Great Taste Awards.

Jonny Cuddy has been rearing pigs for many years on the family farm. He started developing charcuterie to “increase the return from our pigs,” and established Ispini Charcuterie, a small food business, in August 2016. He now looks after 300 sows on the family farm near the border with the Republic of Ireland.

All the meat is sourced from Northern Irish farms which share Jonny’s values of provenance, welfare and taste.

The Ispini range is handmade in small batches, from cutting, blending, curing to hanging – a truly artisan experience.

Another local company, Corndale Farm Free Range Charcuterie, based on a small farm near Limavady, also gained two silver medals for cured meats at the event – for fennel salami and Irish Black Butter flavoured Lomo.

 

CREATED by the butchery trade organisation, Butchery Excellence International – Meat2 Trade is a new trade exhibition which is coming to Lisburn’s Eikon Exhibition Centre in October 2019.

 

Dedicated to the food manufacturing, retailing and butchery industries, it has also been announced that Meat2Trade will be home to the first-ever Four Nations Butchery Championships which will see butchers from Team Ireland pitted against the very best butchers from England, Scotland and Wales.  

 

Taking place on the 2^nd and 3^rd October, Meat2Trade is the brainchild of Butchery Excellence International CEO, Rhonda Montgomery. 

“Having worked within the meat and food manufacturing sectors for almost 20 years, trade shows deliver vital business and new contacts for businesses within the sector. However, there’s not one show that caters specifically for food manufacturing and butchery, until now!”, comments Rhonda Montgomery, organiser of Meat2Trade. 

 

Rhonda adds: “In the past few years, I have organised a number of smaller events across Ireland, and it became apparent that there’s a real demand for this type of event from industry. In 2019, we’re raising the bar with Meat2Trade and have invested significantly in making this new show an event that’s absolutely relevant to businesses in food manufacturing and butchery today.” 

 

Sponsored by Cutting Edge Services, Meat2Trade will feature over 100 of the very best of Meat, Artisan Butchery and Food Manufacturing businesses all under one roof. In addition to hosting the first-ever Four Nations Butchery Championships, the Champion of Champions Butcher of the Year competition will take place at the show.

 

Key Account Manager of Cutting Edge Services, Garyth Quigley comments, “We are delighted to support Meat2Trade, in what is sure to be a very informative and interesting first event. With visitors having the opportunity to learn about new technologies, products and services available, as well as how you can put them into practice in your own business, the show is definitely one not to be missed.”

 

The show invites local agri-food businesses to showcase their products via live demonstrations and be in for the chance to compete for ‘Product of the Show’, with a cash prize of £1,000 cash up for grabs. There’s also a ‘Dragon’s Den’ panel with representatives from various retailers, which will see small food producers pitching in the hope of securing a retail contract.

 

Rhonda Montgomery concludes: “We would like to thank our event partners, Manor Farm, Spice O’Life, UMC, Rational, Quinfresh, Globeweigh, Cutting Edge, Kiernans Food Ingredients, Rhino Media, McDonnells, MLS Label, and Design and Printing Systems for their continued support and collaboration on the event. Looking ahead to October, we are excited to welcome a wealth of knowledge and industry leaders under one roof.”

 

Meat2Trade will take place on 2^nd and 3^rd October 2019 in the Eikon Exhibition Centre, Balmoral Park. Further information can be accessed at www.meat2trade.com.

 

 

For those who wish to exhibit at the event, contact Rhonda on 0044 (0)28 855 57700 / 0044 (0)7766395738 or email rhonda@meat2trade.com. Visit the website to pre-register your attendance for free at www.meat2trade.com

 

You asked and they have delivered, Mash Direct are excited to launch their ecommerce site bringing their award-winning vegetable side dishes direct to your door.

The County Down based farming enterprise are pulling out all the stops taking vegetable preparation to a new level of convenience. You can now order their farm fresh vegetables from the comfort of your own home and have it hand delivered to your door. Having control over the farm and the factory, the busy lifestyles of the Hamilton family sparked the need to create a buying opportunity for those who struggle to buy from the supermarket every week. From traditional favourites to more contemporary dishes, their range offers something for everyone and is 100% Gluten Free with no artificial nasties. Getting your five a day has never been so simple!

Mash Direct are passionate about growing heritage varieties of vegetables that are steam cooked to perfection to retain the flavour and nutritional content of the vegetables as wellas replicating the taste and texture of homemade food. As part of their ecommerce launch, they will be selling ‘Mash Boxes’ which are made up of a selection of their products to complement all eating occasions, providing optimum value and convenience. Whatever your appetite and occasion, you can trust Mash Direct to get it right.

Chief Operating Officer at Mash Direct Jack Hamilton said ‘Busy lifestyles are now influencing buying decisions and more and more families seek convenience in their meal prep but don’t want to compromise on taste, quality and nutrition. By creating an opportunity for consumers to purchase online, it will save even more time for families, elderly and young professionals across the entire week. We are very excited to kick start our ecommerce site across Northern Ireland and soon to make it available across the UK.

’

 

Shortcross Gin has been successful in the prestigious San Francisco World Spirits Competition (SFWSC), one of the world’s leading events for the industry.

Shortcross, the first craft gin in Northern Ireland in over a century, collected two silver medals for its Original Gin and for its Bartender’s Edition in the annual competition which attracted over 3,000 entries from across the world.

Shortcross Gin, a Food NI member company, is produced at the Rademon Estate Craft Distillery, near Crossgar, Co Down, established by husband and wife team David and Fiona Boyd-Armstrong in 2014.

Shortcross Gin is inspired by the rich lush grounds of the Rademon Estate, right in the heart of County Down. Wild clover, elderflowers and elderberries are foraged on the estate, to give aromatic and floral notes, apples crispness and sweet juicy hints.

The recipe for Shortcross is a well-kept secret, but be assured all the typical botanicals like Juniper, Coriander, Orange and Cassia are alive in every sip.

The final ingredient, is pure fresh spring water drawn from the historic well at Rademon Estate. Shortcross Gin is an artisan crafted product that reflects its place of production.

The gin is now on sale in around 30 countries worldwide. A new state-of-the-art visitors centre overlooking the estates’ rolling hills, entertains public tours and corporate events.

Founded in 2000, the SFWSC is one of the oldest competitions of its kind. With nearly two decades of experience, our operation has become a fine-tuned masterpiece that blends passion and professionalism.

Other Northern Ireland producers successful in the competition were Bushmills Irish Whiskey, which won double gold for its 10 year single malt, gold for Black Bush and silver for original Irish Whiskey, Niche Drinks in Derry which won silver for St Brendan’s Cream Liquour and The Quiet Man which won two silver medals for its 8 year single malt and for its blended Irish whiskey.

 

Northern Ireland’s Boatyard Double Gin is to launch in Canada with the highly influential Liquor Control Board of Ontario in the autumn.

 

The major breakthrough in Ontario was announced by Joe McGirr, the founder and managing director of Boatyard, Northern Ireland’s only double distilled gin, and follows a rigorous selection process.

 

Mr McGirr explains: “Only a handful of brands get past the long and rigorous selection process to enter the Ontario market. This usually takes 12 months or  more. Unique sized bottles, special French and English labels and intensive testing are required prior to approval.”

LCBO is an Ontario Government enterprise and one of the world’s largest buyers and retailers of beverage alcohol. It offers more than 26,000 products annually from more than 80 countries, to consumers and licensed establishments.

Boatyard Double Gin is a Food NI member company and has been assisted by Invest NI in Canada.

Mr McGirr continues: “LCBO sells to over 660 retail stores, over 210 agency stores and as wholesaler to almost 250 grocery stores, as well as on-trade licensed premises.

“Boatyard will join three other Irish brands in being among the first ever gins from Ireland to enter the Ontario market in 2019 with a launch planned for the autumn.

 

“This is a significant achievement for us as we expand into the North American market.  It comes at a really exciting time as this year we have received our new custom-built still which enables us to double production capacity. We also reopen our newly refurbished visitor space for tours.”

 

Boatyard Double Gin is based overlooking Lough Erne in Co Fermanagh, near Enniskillen, in a former boat house. The company now features a state-of-the- art distillery which is producing a range of award-winning gins as well as a recently launched vodka.

 

In addition, the small company, formed by Mr McGirr, is 2016 is maturing the first malt whiskey to be distilled in Fermanagh since 1887.

 

Only the best organic ingredients have been chosen for each of the products with the terroir of the land at the forefront of each spirit.

For Boatyard Double Gin, organically produced wheat spirit is macerated for 18 hours with eight different botanicals including Sweet Gale from Fermanagh.

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Boatyard Old Tom Gin is the first of its kind to be launched in Ireland. Boatyard Vodka is the first seed-to-sip vodka in Ireland. Made using organic Irish wheat grown in Co. Kildare, each bottle can be traced back to the farm and field it came from. Malted Irish wheat is steeped in hot water to produce a sugary liquid, ‘wort’. Once cooled, champagne yeast is added and left it to ferment for seven days.