Gold for Northern Irish Rule of Crumb in FreeFrom Food Awards

Northern Ireland's Rule of Crumb has won gold in the prestigious FreeFrom Food Awards in London. The company, which is based at Antrim in county Antrim, gained the top award in the Foods Designed for Children category with its gluten and dairy-free chicken goujons.

Rule of Crumb was borne from a recognition by business partners Colum McLornan and Claire Hunter, both successful hoteliers, who saw a void in the gluten-free supply chain to restaurants and other hospitality establishments initially in Northern Ireland. The products are now on sale in other parts of the UK and Republic of Ireland.

Formed in 2013, Rule of Crumb's product range covers breakfast cereals, chicken kievs, breaded fish, part-baked bread and muffins for both retail and foodservice customers.
Two other Northern Ireland companies gained awards at the event.

Doherty's Meats in Derry gained a bronze for its gluten-free meat balls in Meat Dishes and Ready Meals and a bronze also went to CocoMojo, a Lisburn company, for its Bean drink of coconut milk, coconut water and coffee.

A further two were shortlisted - Mash Direct from Comber, county Down and Kestrel Foods, Portadown, county Armagh, for its Acti-Snack range.

The awards, founded and run by FreeFromFoodsMatter, the web's most comprehensive resource for free-from food innovation and imagination shown by the food industry in creating foods that are free of wheat, gluten, dairy, eggs, nuts, soya, sulphites and other allergens.

Over the last decade the awards have become one of the most important fixtures in the freefrom year.

And over those years the bright yellow awards logo has become recognised as the mark of quality for freefrom foods, widely displayed on winning, commended and shortlisted products on sale everywhere from supermarket shelves to on-line specialist suppliers.
Championed by celebrities like Gwyneth Paltrow, Victoria Beckham and Novak Djokovic, freefrom food has attracted both consumer and industry headlines with unprecedented year-on-year growth.

And the FreeFrom Food Awards has grown with the industry. Setting a standard for excellence and raising awareness in the wider world - a FreeFrom Food Award is now the ultimate accolade for the hundreds of companies, big and small, creating and selling freefrom food.