Northern Ireland successes at UK Quality Awards

Three Northern Ireland companies have been successful in the UK Quality Food Awards, the retail food industry's most important event.

The Northern Ireland successes were meat processors Finnebrogue Artisan and Dunbia and Mash Direct, a specialist in side dishes and convenience meals

An innovative Asda Christmas product developed with Finnebrogue Artisan in Northern Ireland won the Xmas Q Meat category. The product was an Extra Special British Venison, Mulled Wine Stuffing, Bacon, Cranberry and Prosecco Sauce product.

The award-winning product was developed with and produced by Finnebrogue Artisan in Downpatrick, county Down, one of Northern Ireland's most successful and innovative meat producers specialising in venison meats and a range of traditional pork and other flavoured sausages. The company, which employs around 400, is now one of the UK's biggest sausage processors.

Dunbia, Northern Ireland's biggest producer of beef, lamb and pork, won the Meat Beef Steak category for its Picanha Steak developed and produced for the Co-Op.

Dunbia is based at Dungannon in county Tyrone and employs over 3,000 at processing plants across the British Isles.

Mash Direct, based on the family farm of Martin and Tracy Hamilton at Comber in county Down, won the Side Dishes category for its Chill Baby Bakes.

The company is a producer of innovative side dishes and convenience and was chosen as Manufacturing Company of the Year in the recent Food Manufacture Excellence Awards
The Quality Food Awards are the most prestigious awards for food and drink products on sale in UK grocery outlets. What sets the awards apart is the impartiality and robustness of the judging process.

The judging panel is comprised of experts from many different industry disciplines and the judges are a vital component of the validity and robustness of the results. They take every aspect of a product into consideration rewarding: great flavours, high-quality ingredients, excellent value for money and outstanding packaging, which increases the retail success of a product.

The Quality Food Awards were established over 35 years ago. The portfolio has grown significantly and now it also includes: the Quality Drink Awards, the Wholesale Quality Food & Drink Awards, the Irish Quality Food & Drink Awards and a new venture - the Café Quality Food & Drink Awards.