NI firms cook up success at Food and Drink 'Oscars'

Ten Northern Ireland companies have won a record 19 awards at this year's Food and Drink 'Oscars'.

The Great Taste Awards, which announced on Friday at the Speciality and Fine Food Fair at Olympia Exhibition Centre in London, were welcomed by Maynard Mawhinney, Invest NI's Director of Food.

The companies are displaying their products on a joint Invest NI/An Bord Bia (the Republic of Ireland’s food promotion agency) stand at the fair from 4-6 September.

Mr Mawhinney said: “The two events represent the biggest-ever presentation of quality food from Northern Ireland in recent years. Our companies, most of them small to medium enterprises and drawn from every province, have a golden opportunity to demonstrate that they possess outstanding quality, taste and innovation to a very discerning international audience."

The focus of the Speciality and Fine Food Fair is on the quality and speciality fine food and drink sectors. This year 3,000 buyers from the retail, catering, wholesale and manufacturing sectors are expected to attend.

In addition to the Olympia event, 10 Northern Ireland companies are featuring in the ‘Truly British’ food and drink promotion at Harrods department store from 5 September to 15th October. Invest NI has worked closely with Harrods in this important retail promotion.

This year's winning companies were: Brownlees, Portadown; Knotts of Newtownards; Loseley, Belfast; Moyallon Foods, Lurgan; The Offbeat Bottling Company, Bangor; Drumgooland Smokehouse, Castlewellan; Honest Wheat-Free Cakes, Downpatrick; Corn Dolly Foods, Newry; Ditty’s Home Bakery, Magherafelt; and Shaken Not Stirred, Drumgooland.

(MB/SP)