About Us

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Why BuyNIFood

You’ll now find Food & Drink from Northern Ireland being enjoyed every day in more than 80 countries.

The industry, which generated almost £5 billion last year to the local economy and employs upwards of 100,000 people across its supply chain, is among our most successful and ambitious exporters and one which is growing worldwide because of its commitment to pure, natural, quality Food & Drink.

Many of the most successful companies, both large and small and across all sectors, are benefiting from the vast range of trade services and other practical support from Invest Northern Ireland. 

Invest NI is the region’s economic development agency, providing tailored support to the Food & Drink sector domestically and internationally in respect of Northern Ireland.

In addition to support to grow exports, Invest NI helps companies in areas such as business development, R&D, innovation, design and skills.

Trade promotion schemes include participation in major food shows such as Food & Drink Expo, SIAL in Paris, ANUGA in Cologne, Gulfood in Dubai and Hotel China in Shanghai, as well as ‘Meet the Buyer’ events with international retailers and foodservice organisations and upwards of 10 trade missions.

Are you interested in sourcing fresh Food & Drink ideas?

At Invest NI, our Food & Drink Business Development team can offer personal guidance on thousands of products from over 300 suppliers in Northern Ireland and can assist with introductions, sampling, menu development and much more.

They are responsible for building relations with retailers, foodservice organisations and wholesalers in the Republic of Ireland, GB, Europe and international markets.

Our Food & Drink Business Development managers are helping companies increase business abroad by generating leads and setting up face–to–face interviews between the companies and retail and foodservice buyers.

Meet the team

Our Partners

Partners

Food Fortress

The Food Fortress is now established as a unique and innovative program, adding value to food produced in Northern Ireland through enhanced food purity and safety.

A strategic, industry wide program of testing for contaminants developed by the Northern Ireland Grain Trade Association (NIGTA) and Queens University, Belfast – it has been well received by both industry partners and regulators.

Now established as an independent limited company the Food Fortress network extends to 80 companies and over 4 million tonnes of feed production in a 2 tier surveillance program covering both feed materials on importation and compounds delivered to farm.  

Food NI/Taste of Ulster

Food NI provides a single promotional voice for Northern Ireland’s Food & Drink and works to enhance the reputation of Northern Ireland’s Food & Drink through the Taste of Ulster and Our Food So Good messages. Food NI is a company limited by guarantee, formed voluntarily by a consortium of food sector representatives, to develop a positive identity for high quality food from Northern Ireland. The Board consists of representatives from across the entire supply chain.

The Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Development (DAERA)

DAERA aims to promote sustainable economic growth and the development of the countryside in Northern Ireland. The Department assists the competitive development of the agri–food, fishing and forestry sectors of the Northern Ireland economy, having regard for the need of the consumers, the welfare of animals and the conservation and enhancement of the environment.

Northern Ireland Food and Drink Association (NIFDA)

NIFDA is a voluntary organisation committed to helping Northern Ireland food and beverage companies compete successfully and to represent and promote their interests.  It was established to provide services to enhance, promote, inform, educate and develop member business.

Tourism NI

Tourism NI is responsible for the development of tourism and the marketing of Northern Ireland as a tourist destination to visitors within Northern Ireland and from the Republic of Ireland  

NI Business Info

nibusinessinfo.co.uk, a free service offered by Invest Northern Ireland, is the official online channel for business advice and guidance in Northern Ireland.

It contains essential information, support and services for you and your business – whether you work for a large organisation or are on your way to starting up. nibusinessinfo.co.uk is the first place to go to find guidance on regulations and to access government services

Accreditations

British Retail Consortium (BRC)

BRC Global Standards is a leading safety and quality certification programme, used by over 23,000 certificated suppliers in 123 countries, with certification issued through a worldwide network of accredited certification bodies.

The Standards guarantee the standardisation of quality, safety and operational criteria and ensure that manufacturers fulfil their legal obligations and provide protection for the end consumer. BRC Global Standards are now often a fundamental requirement of leading retailers.

SALSA

SALSA is a food–safety standard written by experienced food safety experts to reflect both the legal requirements of producers and the enhanced expectations of ‘best practice’ of professional food buyers. 

SALSA certification is only granted to suppliers who are able to demonstrate to an auditor that they are able to produce safe and legal food and are committed to continually meeting the requirements of the SALSA standard.

NI Connections

NI Connections is where you come to hear about home. We’re a not for profit organisation here to tell you about all the good stuff connected to Northern Ireland. We’re backed by Invest NI and local business. NI Connections is a place where anyone with an affinity to Northern Ireland can come, be proud and connect with each other.

Food Technology Centre Loughry

The College of Agriculture, Food and Rural Enterprise (CAFRE) assists the Northern Ireland food manufacturing sector through the provision of technology support services to all of the major commodity sectors. The College also has dedicated teams devoted to food business development, innovation and energy and waste management. Training programmes are also available to food businesses.

Agri–Food and Biosciences Institute (AFBI)

The Agri–Food & Biosciences Institute (AFBI) was created on 1st April 2006 as an amalgamation of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DARD) Science Service and the Agricultural Research Institute of Northern Ireland (ARINI). AFBI is a DARD Non–Departmental Public Body (NDPB).

AFBI carries out high technology research and development, statutory, analytical, and diagnostic testing functions for DARD and other Government departments, public bodies and commercial companies.

Northern Ireland Centre for Food and Health (NICHE)

Human nutrition research at Ulster University is coordinated through the Northern Ireland Centre for Food & Health (NICHE), which was initially set up with EU structural funds in 1996 to provide greater understanding of diet–related health issues. NICHE has 22 academic, 3 technical, and 15 research staff, together with 36 postgraduate research students and 9 internships.

Queens University – Institute for Global Food Security

The Institute for Global Food Security is based at Queen’s University Belfast within the School of Biological Sciences. The Institute houses a suite of state–of–the–art laboratories, conducting cutting edge research into various topics ranging from soil & plant health through to food security.

Northern Ireland Meat Exporters’ Association (NIMEA)

The Northern Ireland Meat Exporters’ Association includes in its membership the major beef and lamb EC approved slaughtering and cutting companies in Northern Ireland. The Association is a single contact point for all member companies and can direct enquirers with specific needs to specific companies.

Seafish Northern Ireland

Seafish Northern Ireland engages with a range of stakeholders offering advice, assistance and support throughout the supply chain from fishermen to retailers. Seafish NI provides a point of contact with Seafish within the regions and assists industry in accessing technical expertise throughout the whole of Seafish.

The Dairy Council

The Dairy Council is responsible for the generic advertising and promotion of milk and dairy products in Northern Ireland. Its primary function is to communicate factual information to allow individuals to make informed choices about which dairy products they consume and to inform them of the benefits of including dairy products in a balanced diet.

Northern Ireland Pork

The Pork & Bacon Forum was established to promote the local Pigmeat supply chain in Northern Ireland. The Forum, which is comprised of processors, producers, the grain trade, government and scientists all supporting Northern Ireland interests, actively participates in market research, promotion and technical investment for the industry.

Ulster Farmers Union

Founded in 1918, the Ulster Farmers’ Union (UFU) is the largest democratic voluntary organisation representing farmers and growers in Northern Ireland. Its central objective is to promote their interests both at home and abroad through professional lobbying.

Livestock and Meat Commission

The Livestock and Meat Commission for Northern Ireland (LMC) is an Executive Non–Departmental Public Body, which was established by Statute (The Livestock Marketing Commission Act [Northern Ireland] 1967) to assist the development of the livestock and livestock products industries. LMC’s sponsor body is the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DARD). LMC collects statutory levies from beef and sheep producers and slaughterers in Northern Ireland and in return provides a range of services to the industry. LMC also advises DARD on matters relating to the sector.

Awards

Great Taste Awards

Great Taste, organised by the Guild of Fine Food, is the acknowledged benchmark for fine Food & Drink. It 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 you can trust when buying Food & Drink in your local, quality retailer.

UK Quality Food Awards

Launched in 1979, the Quality Food Awards are the most prestigious awards for Food & Drink products on sale in UK grocery outlets, and this is due in large part to the transparency and robustness of the judging process. Expert judging panels are comprised of chefs, chef–lecturers, home economists, food writers, and consultants, restaurateurs, food technologists and representatives from regional food groups, all of whom bring their extensive knowledge to bear in the process. 

Irish Quality Food & Drink Awards

Due to huge demand from the Irish market, the Irish Quality Food & Drink Awards were launched in 2013 for the retail sector.

Blas na hEireann Awards

Now in its 8th year, Blas na hEireann, The Irish Food Awards is the biggest competition for quality Irish produce on the island of Ireland. Over 2500 products were entered in 2015 to win Gold, Silver and Bronze Awards in over 90 Food & Drink categories as well as key awards such as Supreme Champion and Best Artisan Producer.

Disclaimer

PLEASE READ THESE TERMS OF USE CAREFULLY BEFORE USING THIS SITE

Terms of website use

This document (together with the documents referred to in it) (terms of use) tells you the terms of use on which you may make use of our website www.buynifood.com (our site) as a guest. Use of our site includes accessing, browsing material.
Please read these terms of use carefully before you start to use our site, as these will apply to your use of our site. We recommend that you print a copy of this for future reference. By using our site, you confirm that you accept these terms of use and that you agree to comply with them.

These terms of use also set out the terms on which we process any personal data we collect from you, or that you provide to us, whilst using our site or otherwise. By using our site, you consent to such processing and you warrant that all data provided by you is accurate. For the purpose of the Data Protection Act 1998 (the Act), we are the data controller. If you do not agree to these terms of use, you must not use our site.

Information about us

www.buynifood.com is a site operated by Invest Northern Ireland (weus or our), a statutory non–departmental public body corporate established under the Industrial Development Act (Northern Ireland) 2002, based in Northern Ireland, whose registered office is at Bedford Square, Bedford Street, Belfast, BT2 7ES.

Changes to these terms

We may revise these terms of use at any time by amending this page. Please check this page from time to time to take notice of any changes we made, as they are binding on you.

Changes to our site

We may update our site from time to time, and may change the content at any time. However, please note that any of the content on our site may be out of date at any given time, and we are under no obligation to update it.

We do not guarantee that our site, or any content on it, will be free from errors or omissions.

Accessing our site

Our site is made available free of charge. We do not guarantee that our site, or any content on it, will always be available or be uninterrupted. Access to our site is permitted on a temporary basis. We may suspend, withdraw, discontinue or change all or any part of our site without notice. We will not be liable to you if for any reason our site is unavailable at any time or for any period.

You are responsible for making all arrangements necessary for you to have access to our site.

You are also responsible for ensuring that all persons who access our site through your internet connection are aware of these terms of use and other applicable terms and conditions, and that they comply with them.

Intellectual property rights

We are the owner or the licensee of all intellectual property rights in our site, and in the material published on it. Those works are protected by copyright laws and treaties around the world. All such rights are reserved.
You may print off, and may download extracts from, any page(s) on our site for your personal use and you may draw the attention of others within your organisation to content posted on our site. You must not use any logo or trade mark on our site without our, or the relevant licensor’s, prior written consent.

You must not modify the paper or digital copies of any materials you have printed off or downloaded in any way, and you must not use any illustrations, photographs, video or audio sequences or any graphics separately from any accompanying text.

Our status (and that of any identified contributors, including the companies whose information has been uploaded to our site) as the authors of content on our site must always be acknowledged.

You must not use any part of the content on our site for commercial purposes without obtaining a licence to do so from us or our licensors. If you print off, copy or download any part of our site in breach of these terms of use, your right to use our site will cease immediately and you must, at our option, return or destroy any copies of the materials you have made.

No reliance on information

The information provided on our site, relating to food & drink retail goods and services provided by over 300 companies, is provided free of charge and is intended to be helpful to a large range of food & drink retail, foodservice & wholesale based businesses.

All of the company profiles and accompanying information have been supplied by the respective companies. It is the sole responsibility of the company to ensure that the sales profile and information on our site is accurate and up–to–date.

As a result: we cannot take any responsibility for the consequences of errors, omissions or individual company sales profile content; we will not accept any responsibility with regards to challenges arising from individual sales profile content; you should always follow the links to more detailed information from the respective food and drink company; any reliance you place on this information or links to other websites will be at your own risk.

Links on our site will lead to other websites. These links, and the websites they link to, are not regularly monitored by us, nor are they under our control. We are not responsible for the content of any linked website and cannot take responsibility for the consequences of your using the information or services on linked websites. We cannot guarantee that these links will work all the time.

Neither we, nor our site, endorse or favour any specific commercial product or business. Non–government websites linked to and / or from our site are present only because they may be useful additions to the information we provide. A link to a third–party website does not imply endorsement; you must use your own business judgement to decide whether the information or service on that website is suitable for your needs. If a website is not linked to, this does not mean or imply that it is unsatisfactory. The linked websites are reviewed from time to time in the light of customer usage and feedback.

Limitation of our liability

Nothing in these terms of use excludes or limits our liability for death or personal injury arising from our negligence, or our fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or any other liability that cannot be excluded or limited by the laws of Northern Ireland.

To the extent permitted by law, we exclude all conditions, warranties, representations or other terms which may apply to our site or any content on it, whether express or implied.

We will not be liable to any user for any loss or damage, whether in contract, tort (including negligence), breach of statutory duty, or otherwise, even if foreseeable, arising under or in connection with: use of, or inability to use, our site; or use of or reliance on any content displayed on our site.

If you are a business user, please note that in particular, we will not be liable for: loss of profits, sales, business, or revenue; business interruption; loss of anticipated savings; loss of business opportunity, goodwill or reputation; or any indirect or consequential loss or damage.

We will not be liable for any loss or damage caused by a virus, distributed denial–of–service attack, or other technologically harmful material that may infect your computer equipment, computer programs, data or other proprietary material due to your use of our site or to your downloading of any content on it, or on any website linked to it.

We assume no responsibility for the content of websites linked on our site. Such links should not be interpreted as endorsement by us of those linked websites. We will not be liable for any loss or damage that may arise from your use of them.

Viruses

We do not guarantee that our site will be secure or free from bugs or viruses.

You are responsible for configuring your information technology, computer programmes and platform in order to access our site. You should use your own virus protection software.

You must not misuse our site by knowingly introducing viruses, trojans, worms, logic bombs or other material which is malicious or technologically harmful. You must not attempt to gain unauthorised access to our site, the server on which our site is stored or any server, computer or database connected to our site. You must not attack our site via a denial–of–service attack or a distributed denial–of service attack. By breaching this provision, you would commit a criminal offence under the Computer Misuse Act 1990. We will report any such breach to the relevant law enforcement authorities and we will co–operate with those authorities by disclosing your identity to them. In the event of such a breach, your right to use our site will cease immediately.

Linking to our site

You may link to our home page, provided you do so in a way that is fair and legal and does not damage our reputation or take advantage of it. You must not establish a link in such a way as to suggest any form of association, approval or endorsement on our part where none exists.

You must not establish a link to our site in any website that is not owned by you. Our site must not be framed on any other site, nor may you create a link to any part of our site other than the home page. We reserve the right to withdraw linking permission without notice.

If you wish to make any use of content on our site other than that set out above, please contact info@buynifood.com Information we may collect from you

We may collect and process the following data about you:

Information you give us. You may give us information about you by filling in forms on our site or by corresponding with us by phone, e–mail or otherwise. This includes information you provide when you use our site, subscribe to our email notifications and when you report a problem with our site. The information you give us may include your name, address, e–mail address and phone number.

Information we collect about you. With regard to each of your visits to our site we may automatically collect the following information:

  • technical information, including the internet protocol address used to connect your computer or device to the internet, your login information, browser type and version, time zone setting, browser plug–in types and versions, operating system and platform; and
  • information about your visit, including the full uniform resource locators clickstream to, through and from our site (including date and time); pages you viewed or searched for; page response times, download errors, length of visits to certain pages, page interaction information (such as scrolling, clicks, and mouse–overs), and methods used to browse away from the page [and any phone number used to call our customer service number]. 
    We may receive information about you if you use any of the other websites we operate or the other services we provide. We are may receive information from third parties about you from them for example Google Analytics.

Cookies

Our site uses cookies to distinguish you from other users of our website. This helps us to provide you with a good experience when you browse our website and also allows us to improve our site. For detailed information on the cookies we use and the purposes for which we use them see our Cookie policy.

When someone visits our website we collect standard internet log information and details of visitor behaviour patterns. We do this to find out things like the number of visitors to the various parts of Invest NI’s website. We collect this information in a way which does not identify anyone.

The tool we use to analyse visitor patterns uses ‘cookies’, which are text files placed on your computer to collect information. You can decide if you want to accept or reject cookies by changing the settings on your browser.

We will not associate any data gathered from this site with any personally identifying information from any source. If we do want to collect personally identifiable information through our web site, we will make it clear when we collect it and will explain what we intend to do with it.

Uses made of the information

We use information held about you in the following ways:

Information you give to us. We will use this information:

  • to provide you, or permit selected third parties to provide you, with information about goods or services we feel may interest you.
  • to notify you about changes to our service; or
  • to ensure that content from our site is presented in the most effective manner for you and for your computer.

Information we collect about you. We may use this information:

  • to administer our site and for internal operations, including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, research, statistical and survey purposes;
  • to improve our site to ensure that content is presented in the most effective manner for you and for your computer;
  • to allow you to participate in interactive features of our site, when you choose to do so;
  • as part of our efforts to keep our site safe and secure;
  • to measure or understand the effectiveness of advertising we serve to you and others, and to deliver relevant advertising to you; or
  • to make suggestions and recommendations to you and other users of our site about goods or services that may interest you or them.

Information we receive from other sources. We may combine this information with information you give to us and information we collect about you. We may us this information and the combined information for the purposes set out above (depending on the types of information we receive).

Disclosure of your information

We may share your information with selected third parties including:

  • business partners, suppliers and sub–contractors for the performance of any contract we enter into with them or you;
    advertisers and advertising networks that require the data to select and serve relevant adverts to you and others; or
    analytics and search engine providers that assist us in the improvement and optimisation of our site.
  • We may disclose your personal information to third parties if we are under a duty to disclose or share your personal data in order to comply with any legal obligation, or in order to enforce or apply our terms of use and other agreements; or to protect the rights, property, or safety of Invest Northern Ireland, our customers, or others. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organisations for the purposes of fraud protection and credit risk reduction.

Where we store your personal data

The data that we collect from you may be transferred to, and stored at, a destination outside the European Economic Area (EEA). By submitting your personal data, you agree to this transfer, storing or processing. We will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your data is treated securely and in accordance with these terms of use.

All information you provide to us is stored on secure servers.

Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we will do our best to protect your personal data, we cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted to our site; any transmission is at your own risk. Once we have received your information, we will use strict procedures and security features to try to prevent unauthorised access.

Your rights

You have the right to ask us not to process your personal data for marketing purposes. We will usually inform you (before collecting your data) if we intend to use your data for such purposes or if we intend to disclose your information to any third party for such purposes. [You can exercise your right to prevent such processing by checking certain boxes on the forms we use to collect your data. You can also exercise the right at any time by contacting us at info@buynifood.com. Our site may contain links to and from the websites of our partner networks, supplier company pages, advertisers and affiliates. If you follow a link to any of these websites, please note that these websites have their own terms of use and privacy policies and that we do not accept any responsibility or liability for these polices or the use of information by any of these third party websites. Please check these policies before you submit any personal data to these websites.

Access to information

The Act gives you the right to access information held about you. Your right of access can be exercised in accordance with the Act. Any access request may be subject to a fee of £10 to meet our costs in providing you with details of the information we hold about you.

Applicable law

If you are a consumer, please note that these terms of use, its subject matter and its formation, are governed by the laws of Northern Ireland. You and we both agree that the courts of Northern Ireland will have exclusive jurisdiction. 
If you are a business, these terms of use, its subject matter and its formation (and any non–contractual disputes or claims) are governed by the laws of Northern Ireland. We both agree to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of Northern Ireland.

Contact us

Should you require this information in an alternative format please contact: The Equality Unit, Invest Northern Ireland, Bedford Square, 3rd Floor Belfast BT2 7ES Telephone: 028 9069 8264 or 028 9069 8273 Textphone: 028 9069 8585 Fax 028 9043 6536 Email: Equality@investni.com

To contact us with any other comments or queries, please email info@buynifood.com.