Northern Irish foods shortlisted for Irish awards

Forty four products from 28 Northern Irish food and drink companies have been shortlisted for category awards in the annual Irish Food Awards (Blas na hEireann), the finals of which will be held at the popular Dingle Peninsula Food Festival first week-end in October.

Northern Irish products bidding for awards range from traditional Irish breads and convenience meals to Italian pesto, handcrafted gin and cider.

Companies in the running include major producers such as meat processors Linden Foods, Dungannon, county Tyrone and Doherty and Gray of Ballymena, county Antrim, both suppliers to major multiples, and Belfast-based Thompson's Family Teas to successful artisan enterprises including Kookykook Fresh Pesto, Portrush, county Antrim, Kearney Blue Cheese, Portaferry, county Down, and Rademon Estate's Shortcross Gin from Crossgar, county Down.

The awards recognise and reward the very best tasting Irish food and drink products and the passionate people who make them. They are regarded as the Irish equivalent of the Great Taste Awards, now in their 22ndyear, organised by the UK Guild of Fine Food.

Now in their 7th year, the awards are open to all Irish companies. Products are tasted by panels of selected judges in two tranches resulting in the winning products being awarded gold, silver and bronze as well as some key awards such as Best in Farmers Market and Chef's Choice.

The Blas awards are the biggest blind tasting of produce on the island of Ireland, and the criteria on which the product is judged as well as the judging system itself, which was developed by Blas na hEireann with the Food Science Department of University College Cork, is now recognised as an international industry standard.

The Blas Awards is a non-for profit organisation and was founded so that quality benchmarks could be established for Irish produce on a level playing field.

The winners will be announced on 5thOctober as the highlight of the Dingle Food Festival.