Article written by Food NI CEO Michele Shirlow for Farm Week 12/01/2017

I’ve decided to use this week’s column to the forthcoming UK Great Taste Awards. I know you’ve read a great deal about this competition over the past year or so. We’ve certainly done very well in the prestigious awards over the past few years.

What I want to focus on in this column is the need for companies here to start planning their entries for the 2017 awards, which will be open for member companies of the UK Guild of Fine Food next week.
Entry for companies which aren’t guild members opens on 1st February. So, companies hoping to achieve recognition need to be start working on their entries as soon as practicable. And remember there is a 10,000 cap on entries which means the competition will close when this number is reached. The growing popularity of the Great Taste Awards means that the 10,000 entry cap could be reached fairly quickly.

Why bother to enter? The Great Taste Awards has been described as the ‘Oscars’ of the food world and the ‘epicurean equivalent of the Booker prize’. Quite simply the Great Taste logo is the sign that shoppers can trust when buying food and drink in a local, quality retailer. It can also help companies win business with retailers including major supermarkets that now watch the awards for innovative products.

We had a great year last year, the highlight of which was Hannan Meats of Moira winning the Supreme Champion title for the second time, the first time the top award has been won twice by a company from the UK and Ireland. Dozens of other local companies also gained gold stars in the event for hundreds of products combining quality and outstanding taste.

Companies achieving three stars can win a listing in the Top 50 Foods, the most prestigious listing of the best of food and drink in the UK and Ireland.

The awards were good for the participating companies and also supported the drive here to showcase Northern Ireland as a global food and drink centre of excellence. Winning an award is important to producers, especially for micro and smaller businesses because it helps to set their products apart from the rest. It’s a real seal of approval. They allocate the gold stars – three for an exquisite product, two for outstanding and one simply delicious
Approval follows rigorous sampling by many of over 400 judges, including specially trained food writers, chefs and restaurateurs giving their verdict at upwards of judging days from March through to early July. Week-long judging sessions will once again be held in Belfast. We took the opportunity to showcase the culinary excellence here. Feedback from the participating judges was wholly positive about the skills and expertise of our cadre of superb chefs.

The judges, in addition, provide expert feedback which has helped companies in past competition to improve a product and strengthen its commercial appeal.

Entering the UK Great Taste Awards, therefore, can be good for a business in so many ways. This is why Food NI is keen to encourage and assist as many local companies as practicable to get involved in this most important competition. So, get cracking with the entry form.

The Northern Ireland Year of Food and Drink Awards in association with the Belfast Telegraph take place on Thursday 2nd February at the Culloden Estate & Spa.

Guests will enjoy a bespoke 5 course banquet curated by the chefs of Hastings Hotels.

Make sure you don’t miss your opportunity to attend. Tickets are £75+vat or book a table of 10. Contact Jackie O’Neill on 028 9026 4127 or j.o’neill@belfasttelegraph.co.uk

BBC Food & Farming Awards 2017 are open for nominations from 15th-29th January 2017.

Click here to view more!

Top British food magazine Delicious is encouraging Northern Ireland’s artisan and smaller food companies to bid for recognition in its annual Produce Awards (http://www.deliciousmagazine.co.uk/stories/about-the-delicious-produce-awards/). Entries open on 16th January.

The widely read magazine among foodies is on a mission to search out and champion local food heroes, the creators of the United Kingdom’s best food.

Following last year’s successful launch of the Delicious Produce Awards, the competition is back, and promising to be even bigger and better. The aim of the awards, run in association with home appliance company Fisher and Paykel, is to search out and celebrate small-scale, artisan producers from throughout the UK.

From the tip of Scotland to Northern Ireland and the Scilly Isles, it’s the country’s farmers, fishermen, butchers and artisan food producers who supply markets and fill cupboards with quality ingredients – and it’s these that inspire us to cook the best food we can.

Delicious wants producers to enter produce and products they’re proud to make, grow and create, and readers to nominate food that’s worthy of an award. There is no charge for nominating, and everyone who nominates a producer will be entered into a prize draw to win a Fisher & Paykel fridge freezer worth £1,829.99!

Last year the magazine unearthed some fantastic food stories. Look out for in-depth stories on all the 2016 Produce Awards winners throughout 2017 in Delicious. magazine

Check out the Terms and Conditions on the Delicious website before entering to make sure that you fit the criteria for the Awards. There is an entry fee of £75 for each item that you’re entering to cover costs and to ensure the business benefits from maximum publicity if it makes it onto the regional shortlist.
There are eight separate categories in the Produce Awards; under two headings: primary and artisan.

PRIMARY
Includes quality ethically* produced ingredients, grown with respect for the land, reared with care in the field, or sustainably sourced from our waters.
• From the dairy
Dairy produce made with demonstrable regard for the behavioural and physical welfare of animals on British farms, including sufficient grazing pasture; traceability of produce. Examples: organic milk, cream, goat’s milk
• From the earth
Ethically grown or foraged British crops that reflect a healthy respect for the land and its natural seasonal cycles, made in a manner that minimises pollution and waste to the environment. Examples: grains and flours, seeds, pulses, fruits, vegetables, herbs and foraged foods
• From the field
Animals and birds bred for the table and reared with a high regard for their physical and emotional welfare, raised on pasture or land suitable for grazing or foraging and humanely slaughtered. Honey should be traceable to a single region. Examples: meat, poultry and game, honey, eggs
• From the sea
Responsibly sourced seafood caught in British waters, either wild fish and shellfish, or fish/shellfish reared on environmentally responsible farms. This category also includes samphire, purslane, edible seaweed varieties and other ‘sea vegetables’. Examples: wild or ethically farmed seafood; sea vegetables

ARTISAN
This category is for products made in the UK, using largely British-grown or reared, ethically raised* produce. The process can be as simple a process as churning butter from British milk, making soup with home-grown ingredients, or selling Lancashire hot pots made with local meat.

The awards also recognise the UK’s diverse communities and the food that consumers love to eat – Caribbean curries, Chinese dim sum, Indian snacks, Italian sauces, and French patisserie for example.

Ingredients for artisan products can be sourced from further afield if not readily available in the UK. For example, eligible entries will include the likes of tapenade made with Mediterranean olives, Asian-spiced pickles, or marmalade prepared with Spanish oranges. Traceability of ingredients should be transparent and ethical business practices adhered to (see below).

• From the dairy
Foods that qualify for this category include freshly churned butter, buttermilk, yogurt and local cheese varieties. It can also include branded items that use dairy products as a key ingredient. Examples: butter, garlic butter, junket, custard tarts
• From the earth
Products made from ingredients based on ethically* grown crops. Examples: artisan bread and bakery products; preserves and dishes made with locally grown fruit and vegetables; oils such as rapeseed; hedgerow harvests transformed into retail items (perhaps a wild garlic dressing, wild berry puddings, and other ready-to-eat prepared items). PLEASE NOTE: Fruit and vegetable juices will be eligible for entry but alcoholic beverages will not be considered.
• From the field
Meat or poultry-based items made with sound ethics and craftsmanship. Examples: dry-cured bacon and sausages, terrines, smoked meats, pies, casseroles, curries, scotch eggs, ready-to-heat or eat dishes.
• From the sea
Fish or seafood-based items using quality raw ingredients. Examples: preserved and prepared seafood, including potted shrimps, smoked kippers, pâté and prepared dishes in which the main ingredient is British-caught. Specialist sea salt and items made with predominantly sea vegetables, such as samphire and edible seaweed are also eligible.

If a produce/product is shortlisted by the regional judges in March 2017, the following benefits apply:
• PR mentoring for your business by the official PR company for the delicious. Produce Awards 2017.
• An editorial entry on the Produce Awards website, which attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors every month. The entry will include information about business activities, products, contact details, images (provided by the shortlisted business) and a link to your website.
• If a business is a winner in its category, there will be extensive coverage in delicious. magazine and press coverage.

Article written by Sam Butler, featured in the Newsletter 09/01/2017

Tourism NI chief executive John McGrillen is quick to acknowledge that Northern Ireland’s first-ever year of Food and Drink “exceeded all expectations” and overall was “a resounding success”. He reinforces this by adding: “We’ve got to build on the legacies of the initiative during 2017 especially in our partnership with Tourism Ireland to promote Northern Ireland as a great food destination.”

Promotional activity abroad included bringing hundreds of food writers, bloggers, and chefs to Northern Ireland and generated coverage in magazines, newspapers, and blogs worth around £30 million – against an initial target of £10 million, he continues. The most significant achievement in promotional coverage being in the core markets of Great Britain and the Republic of Ireland. “The overall coverage of Northern Ireland food and drink among the ‘culturally curious’, our target audience,’ in both these hugely important markets has been tremendous,” he says.

His appreciation of the value of media coverage abroad has been shaped by time spent marketing Northern Ireland in Germany as a business location for the former Industrial Development Board. This experience has also led to the close relationships developed with Invest Northern Ireland during the past year.

“The Northern Ireland food destination message, in addition, has been covered in the US, the Middle East, and Asia. As a result of the programme of international media visits, we’ve developed good relationships with many very influential food writers and specialist journalists. And we will continue to follow up the contacts made with news and other information likely to be of interest to them. We also appreciate greatly the enthusiastic support from the media here. There’s now a much greater awareness of the outstanding quality of our food and drink, our superb hotels and restaurants, and the culinary excellence of chefs here.”

While measuring the success of such a wide-ranging initiative as Year of Food and Drink is likely to take some time, Mr McGrillen draws great encouragement from the most recent Visitor Attitude Survey, completed at the end of October, showing that the percentage of visitors who thought Northern Ireland’s food offering was either excellent or very good rose from 60 percent to an immensely impressive 83 percent this year.

He took over as Tourism NI supremo just before the public launch of Year of Food and Drink and has seen visitor numbers from overseas hit an all-time record of almost 2.1 million, a very healthy increase of six per cent on the previous year and generating almost £600 million to the local economy, nine per cent up on 2015. The body is clearly on target to drive tourism spend to more £1 billion by 2020.

The role of food and drink in tourism has long been recognised by Tourism NI, he continues. “It’s a key element in our market strategy…and will continue to be so. Research shows that 25 percent of spending by visitors is on food and drink, which makes it essential that we continue to focus attention on what we offer them. This is why Year of Food and Drink was so important. The initiative has succeeded in reinforcing the position of food and drink at the heart of the visitor offering.

“What it did was to provide a framework which pulled together the public, private and voluntary sectors to come up with an immense programme of some 100 activities showcasing our food and drink,” he says. “While Tourism NI implemented the initiative very professionally and effectively, the support we received from the industry and other stakeholders ensured its success,” he adds.

He acknowledges the contribution of Food NI in co-ordinating and supporting marketing initiatives and sees a continuing role for the organisation in carrying forward the legacies of the campaign. “This will mean a close look at Food NI’s resources to enable it to build on last year’s achievements and the partnerships established across Northern Ireland.”

Partnerships are important to him. His previous experience as a top executive with Belfast and Downpatrick councils underpins his appreciation of innovative initiatives by local government in support of Tourism NI especially during Year of Food and Drink.

“Councils, for instance, have been involved in a host of activities from establishing food markets to supporting many of the 17 food tours now operating across Northern Ireland for the benefit of tourists as well as hundreds of smaller producers.”

A busy programme of activities for the year ahead is being shaped by Tourism NI in collaboration with its partners. The popular BBC Good Food Show is returning to Belfast in October; the RUAS at Balmoral Park is being extended to four days and will feature an even bigger Food NI Food and Drink Pavilion; LegenDerry Food Festival and other foodie shows in Derry will continue; and the Twilight Markets in Belfast, Newry, Portadown and Lurgan will also feature along with enhanced food and drink offerings at agricultural shows throughout the province.

The show goes on and will continue to gather momentum during 2017.

The Northern Ireland Year of Food and Drink Awards are a celebration of food producers and experiences in the province.

hey will be judged by a panel of distinguished experts, including critic Charles Campion and food author Georgina Campbell, writer of the definitive guides to eating out and hospitality in Ireland.

Belfast Telegraph restaurant critic Joris Minne and Professor Una McMahon-Beattie, head of the department of hospitality and tourism management at Ulster University, complete the quartet of judges.

You can enter the awards by filling and returning your entry form until the morning of Friday January 6 2017.