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Artisan award winners Co Couture, a chocolatier, and Suki Teahouse, both based in Northern Ireland created an innovative milk chocolate bar with a Japanese Cherry Sencha infusion which gained a silver medal in the prestigious World Final International Chocolate Awards.

A panel of expert judges including leading chefs has acclaimed Northern Ireland’s “world class produce” and listed Belfast as a destination in the Hot List 2015: Food and Drink Destinations.

Fortnum and Mason shoppers will be able to enjoy Champion Beef from Northern Ireland’s Hannan Meats over the Christmas and New Year periods.

Hannan, based in Moira, county Down, purchased the Glenarm Shorthorn Champion at last month’s Allam’s Christmas Show and Sale in Belfast with the intention of preparing the beef in its unique Himalayan Salt Chamber, the biggest of its type in the world, for the high-end retailer in London, who is the exclusive retail stockist of the beef in the UK.

Corned beef from Northern Ireland has been listed in the ‘Ark of Taste’ initiative by Italy’s University of Gastronomic Sciences in Turin as a food to be preserved from extinction.

Mash Direct, the Northern Irish specialist in ready-to-eat potato and vegetable dishes, all grown and cooked on a family farm at Comber in county Down, has been listed in ‘Ones to Watch: 10 rising companies’ in the Sunday Times Fast Track 100.

ShortCross, Northern Ireland’s premium handcrafted gin, has won its first export sales into the Republic of Ireland. The family-run business, already a supplier to Fortnum and Mason in London, now includes The Celtic Whiskey Shop and Donnybrook Fair, both based in Dublin, among its developing customer base.

A trio of new handcrafted ciders has been launched by Kilmegan Cider in Northern Ireland. The farmhouse ciders are the first to be produced outside Northern Ireland’s traditional apple orchard region of county Armagh.

Blackthorn Foods, the Northern Irish manufacturer of the Melting Pot handmade fudge range, is to launch a new product aimed at coffee shops and tea houses in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland.

Dale Farm, Northern Ireland's biggest dairy co-operative, is driving the UK region's growing business links with China.

Five Northern Ireland companies have been successful in the recent UK Quality Food and Drink Awards.