This prestigious competition sees the best tasting Irish food and drink rewarded for its outstanding taste and quality, along with recognising the passionate and dedicated producers who make them.

Tesco products received awards across several medal classes, including beef, lamb and bacon, cured meats, ready meals, prepared foods, soups, ice cream, dairy, cheese, breakfast cereal and preserves categories.

Tesco was awarded 11 gold medals including the newly launched Tesco Finest blackcurrant conserve, produced by Folláin in Cork.

Joe Manning, Commercial Director, Tesco Ireland, said: “It’s great to be back at the Blas na hÉireann awards in person this year, and we’re proud to have come home with 25 awards for Tesco own label and Finest products.

“We are delighted to have the quality of our Irish produced products recognised at such a prestigious event, and to have received 11 gold medals, as well as 9 silver and 5 bronze is an achievement that we are all extremely proud of.

“This is all made possible thanks to the relationships we have with our dedicated suppliers, some of which we’ve worked with for 25 years now, who provide the best quality products for our customers. Congratulations to all involved.”

Tesco Ireland also received four awards at this years World Steak Challenge that took place on Wednesday, 28^th September. The third year of the competition saw Tesco Finest Certified Irish Angus Ribeye, Tesco Irish Ribeye steak and Tesco Irish Striploin steak all receive silver medals, while the Tesco Finest Certified Irish Angus Striploin received a bronze medal.

Gold Winners:

• Tesco Finest honey and mustard ham
• Tesco Finest Certified Irish Angus Beef Short Ribs with Honey, Soya and Sesame Sauce
• Tesco Raspberry Yogurt 150g
• Tesco Moroccan inspired salad
• Tesco Finest Tomato with Mascarpone & Fresh Basil Soup 400g
• Tesco Finest Red Cabbage with Port & Cranberries 400g
• Tesco Finest Mashed Potato 400g (Bronze 2021)
• Tesco Finest Italian Meats Pizza
• Tesco Finest Buffalo Mozzarella & Semi Dried Tomatoes Wood Fired pizza
• Tesco Finest Cranberry, Apricot & Clementine stuffing
• Tesco Finest blackcurrant conserve

Silver Winners:

• Tesco Lamb Leg Steaks
• Tesco Finest 6 Canadian Maple Smoked Dry Cured Irish Rashers
• Tesco Finest Honeyed Irish Ham
• Tesco Finest Dulce de Leche ice cream
• Tesco Sicilian Lemon Yogurt 150g
• Tesco 50% Less Fat Creme Fraiche 300g
• Tesco Finest Vintage White Cheddar Cheese
• Tesco Garlic & Herb Stuffing 250g
• Tesco Irish Oats 1Kg

Bronze Winners:

• Tesco Fire Pit grill steaks with mixed peppercorn crust
• Tesco Finest Certified Irish Angus Ranch Steaks with Smoky Garlic and Onion Butter
• Tesco Irish lamb Rack
• Tesco Finest Melting Middle cod and parsley fishcakes
• Tesco Finest Rhubarb and Madagascan Vanilla conserve

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Hosted by BWG Foods, owners and operators of the XL Retail brand in Ireland, the prestigious awards ceremony recognises outstanding retail practice across the XL Retail Group nationwide.

The XL Retail Awards are presented to XL stores that demonstrated outstanding industry excellence following a comprehensive programme of inspections and audits carried out by Ireland’s leading Retail Audit company, SMA Retail Specialists.

Scully’s XL Daingean has been a part of the XL Group for the past 13 years and Enda took on a major redevelopment of his business in 2019, moving location and upgrading from a 800 sq ft store to a 3,800 sq ft store incorporating full off licence, sit down area, full butchery and a post office. The store has an excellent full deli offering, very strong coffee offering with Insomnia Coffee, and has a very extensive range of confectionary, soft drinks and grocery.

Scully’s XL was also named Loyalty Champion on the night.

Paul Bealin, XL Retail Group Sales Director, said: “XL retailers strive for excellence in every aspect of their service to their shoppers and the local communities in which they are embedded. In meeting the exacting standards of the independent SMA Audit, our retailers have illustrated their commitment to being industry leaders in the retail sector and their focus on exceeding customer expectations.

“I want to congratulate Enda and all in Scully’s XL Daingean on continuing to set the benchmark for the XL brand and marketplace overall. Their efforts have been truly outstanding and their recognition is very well-deserved.”

Bob Moore’s XL Kells was named Best Fresh Produce store on the night, while Robert Bergin’s XL Derrinturn in Kildare was named Best Fresh Foods store.

Castlebar business Chris and Paul Scriney’s XL was a joint winner of the Best Impulse Offering award, while Laura Criney’s XL was named Best Newsagents at the awards night.

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This week, thousands of artisan food producers from across the globe discovered if any of their products had scooped a prestigious Great Taste award, after being blind judged by more than 500 judges.

Ireland takes home an impressive 11 three-star awards, 116 two-star awards and 384 one-star awards this year including the following:

Great Taste 3-star – Mileeven pure honeycomb, straight from the hive from Mileeven Fine Foods (only 1.7% of the 14,205 2022 entries received a 3-star – “extraordinarily tasty food & drink”)

Great Taste 2-star – Mocha Java from McCabe’s Coffee (only 8.7% of the 14,205 2022 entries received a 2-star – “above and beyond delicious”)

Great Taste 1-stars – Passionfruit kefir and Natural live yoghurt with raspberries from Glenilen Farm (28.7% of the 14,205 2022 entries received a 1-star – “food & drink that delivers fantastic flavour”)

The full list of this year’s winners and where to buy them can be found at www.greattasteawards.co.uk f and a wide range of the award-winning products are available to buy in delis, farm shops and independent retail outlets across the country.

Recognised as a stamp of excellence and actively sought out by food lovers and retailers alike, Great Taste, organised by the Guild of Fine Food, values taste above all else. All products in the line-up for judging are blind-tasted: every product is removed from its packaging so it cannot be identified, before entering a robust, layered judging process.

This year, the judging took place over 90 days across two judging locations (Dorset and London) with a panel of more than 500 judges. This year’s line-up saw food and drink products submitted from a staggering 110 different countries from across the world.

Great Taste’s prestigious judging panel is made up of over 500 food & drink professionals, including critics, chefs, recipe creators, buyers, retailers, journalists, broadcasters, and experts in the field.

2022’s judging line-up included head buyers from Selfridges, Whole Foods, Fortnum & Mason and Waitrose, BBC Good Food editor Keith Kendrick, delicious. editor Karen Barnes, Bake Off contestant and author Chetna Makan, MasterChef Professionals finalist Santosh Shah, food and drink consultant Mallika Basu, BBC’s Nigel Barden, national television presenters Lotte Duncan and Juliet Sear, restaurateurs Kavi Thakrar (Dishoom) and Amy Poon (Poon’s), journalists including Felicity Cloake (The Guardian), Xanthe Clay (Telegraph) and Joanna Blythman (multiple national titles), as well food writers Gill Meller, Melissa Thompson, and Georgina Hayden among many others. This experienced panel, each with trusted palates, have together tasted and re-judged the 3-star winning products to crown the Golden Fork trophy winners as well as the Great Taste 2022 Supreme Champion.

John Farrand, managing director at the Guild of Fine Food comments: “We are chuffed to be unveiling the list of award-winners for 2022 today. It’s been another exceptional year of high quality, innovation, and creativity. We’re seeing a steady increase in plant-based products year-on-year and the fermented and functional foods are really starting to hold their own in terms of taste.

“I was extremely impressed to see that many of the entries have come from businesses which started trading in the last year or two, these are companies who incorporated in the middle of the most challenging period in economic and social history. And they’re thriving.

“It isn’t easy doing what these producers do, neither for the start-ups nor the established businesses. Growing a business and a brand in the food industry has so many variables to consider from standards, to policies, learning to sell and market your products, and that’s before you think about aiming for excellence in the taste and flavour of your products. I have the utmost admiration for them all.”

Overall, an impressive 5,556 products received either a Great Taste 1-star “food & drink that delivers fantastic flavour”, a Great Taste 2-star “above and beyond delicious”, or a Great Taste 3-star “extraordinarily tasty food & drink” out of a staggering 14,205 entries.

These Great Taste award-winners can now proudly display the iconic black and gold Great Taste logo on their award-winning products. The logo states the year and whether the product was awarded 1, 2 or 3 gold stars.

Past winners say that displaying a Great Taste sticker has increased sales by as much as 50%; as food-lovers from around the globe clamour to taste the best food and drinks products of 2022.

For the award-winners it’s only just the beginning as the highest scoring producers now go through to the regional finals. The Golden Fork Ceremony celebrates the best from each region (northeast, southwest etc), with the winner being awarded a Golden Fork trophy – there are ten up for grabs. Plus, the ultimate winner of Great Taste 2022 – The Supreme Champion – will be crowned for winning the highest-scoring 3-star product of the year.

All will be announced at the Great Taste Golden Fork Ceremony on Monday 5 September 2022, held at Southwark Cathedral.

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Entries are now open on www.pakman.ie, closing on Friday 23^rd September 2022.

Now in its eighth year, The Pakman Awards are recognised as one of the most prestigious accolades that an organisation, community group or individual can win in Ireland’s environmental sector.

This year will see 10 categories in the National Environmental Awards and the Overall Pakman Award, which was won by Irish Packaging Recycling (IPR) in 2021. IPR invested €2 million upgrading the plastics and metals sorting line at its Dublin plant in 2020, which resulted in the recovery of an additional 2,500 tonnes of plastics and aluminium. Award categories also include Community Recycling Initiative, Waste Prevention Award and Business Recycling Champion.

Category entrants are invited to submit examples of their environmental efforts from the past year, with details of all categories available on www.pakman.ie. The winners will be announced at this year’s Pakman Awards, which will be held on the 28^th October 2022 in The Marker Hotel, Dublin.

Speaking at the launch of the 2022 Pakman Awards, Minister of State with responsibility for Public Procurement, eGoverment, Communications and the Circular Economy, Ossian Smyth TD, said: “As Ireland’s focus shifts away from waste disposal towards how we can preserve resources by creating a circular economy, the 2022 Pakman Awards provide an opportunity to raise awareness about the circular economy and how it can improve citizens lives in a tangible way.

“The awards will recognise Ireland’s environmental best in class, highlighting and acknowledging achievements of individuals, communities, businesses, and organisations who are leading Ireland’s transition to a circular economy through prevention, recycling and awareness initiatives.”

Séamus Clancy, CEO of Repak added: “The Pakman Awards offer not only businesses and organisations but community groups and individuals the opportunity to showcase their best practices and innovation in recycling and waste management.

“We are back to a new normality after a challenging two years and we’re looking forward to seeing the changes organisations and community groups have made over the past 12 months and highlighting these efforts.

“We would like to encourage all organisations, businesses, community groups and individuals to share the innovations they have made and enter this year’s awards. We are proud to see so many organisations and individuals over the years make these environmental changes, big and small, to ensure that Ireland continues in our overall commitment to a sustainable future.”

More information can be found on Pakman Awards on Facebook and @PakmanAwards on Twitter and www.pakman.ie.

The Pakman Awards 2022 categories are:

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The fourth annual Pride of Centra Awards took place in the Cliff at Lyons in Co. Kildare.

Centra personnel from across the country were honoured for the passion and commitment they displayed in 2017.

The Pride of Centra Awards was established to acknowledge those staff who demonstrated passion and enthusiasm in cementing Centra as Ireland’s number one convenience retailers. With 11,000 Centra employees currently at work in Ireland, it is no small feat to be recognised at the illustrious awards ceremony.

Commenting on the awards, Centra’s interim marketing director Des O’Mahony said: “These awards were established to recognise and honour the outstanding representatives who consistently embody the Centra brand values each and every day.

“The Pride of Centra Awards 2017 showcases the exemplary work undertaken by Centra staff members, who go above and beyond to ensure outstanding customer service. Our staff is at the heart of everything we do, and most importantly they are firmly cemented in each of their local communities where they make positive impact through their work.”

This year’s guest list was a medley of the best Irish retail has to offer.

Taking home the coveted Pride of Centra Award was Centra Belturbet store manager, Fiona Reily. The Co. Cavan woman came out on top of some impressive competition to be named this year’s champion.

Meanwhile the Pride of Centra Employee Award went to Centra Clarina’s Tins Purcell, while Graciely Pereira from Capel Street Dublin snapped up the Department Manager of the year award.

Commenting on the achievement of Fiona Reilly, Judge Edie O’Connell said: ““Fiona is a truly inspirational leader, driven to succeed and strives to motivate her staff, her customers and the local community. Fiona stepped up as store manager in a store facing many challenges. She always aims for the highest store standards with a strong involvement in the local community.

Fiona’s focus included developing and upskilling staff, local community support, developing customer loyalty programmes, hosting regular in store events and encouraging staff involvement in local events. She is a truly deserving winner.”

54 finalists attended on the day and represented 17 counties; Dublin, Cork, Sligo, Waterford, Wicklow, Donegal, Galway, Clare, Cavan, Limerick, Mayo, Tipperary, Kilkenny, Kerry, Carlow and Wexford.

All shortlisted candidates were recognised for their ongoing commitment to their work with community initiatives, exceptional customer service and engaging activities in-store.

Our Feature image shows Breda Cahill from Centra Ballinteer who won the Pride of Centra Outstanding Contribution Award, Fiona Reilly from Centra Belturbet, Cavan, who won the Pride of Centra Store Manager Award aswell as the Overall award, Des O’Mahony Interim Marketing Director, Tina Purcell from Centra Clarina, Limerick who won the Pride of Centra Employee award and Graciely Pereira, Centra Capel St , who won the Pride of Centra Department Manager Award

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