Northern Irish Mash Direct shortlisted as Free From Pioneer

Mash Direct, the Northern Irish producer of vegetable sides and convenience meals, has been shortlisted for the final stage of the inaugural The FoodTalk Awards to be announced later in the year.

The company, based on a family farm at Comber, county Down, is the only Northern Irish company on the shortlist.

The FoodTalk Awards were launched by The FoodTalk Show podcast to celebrate the innovators of food tech, including those involved in food and drink production, packaging, journalism and other food-related fields.The winners will be announced on the first day of London Tech Week, which starts on Monday 12th June. Sue Nelson, founder and presenter of The FoodTalk Radio Show, says: "Choosing the finalists from all those brilliant entries was, quite frankly, tortuous.

"We were very lucky to have a panel of industry experts who really know about innovation, but the standard was so high, picking the shortlist and overall winners was still devilishly difficult for us all.

"But we were determined to do it - food tech is vital to the future of the UK economy and there's so much amazing work going on here, we just had to put these stars into the spotlight."

Mash Direct is shortlisted in the 'Free From Pioneer' category for its crispy vegetable bakes. The company was launched in 2004 in a farm diversification project and is now selling its products worldwide. It won the Food Manufacturing Excellence Award last year and the SIAL Middle East Gold for Innovation.

Along with the awards presentations, the audience at the awards will have the chance to sample entries in the 'It's All in the Taste' categories, before casting their votes to award the winners.The FoodTalk Awards 2017 take place at OXO2, Southbank, London on 12th June.