Bringing together flowers, food, and a great day out, ‘A Taste of Bloom’, curated by Neven Maguire is the ideal gift for your loved one this Valentine’s Day. Available to book during the festival’s five days over the June Bank Holiday weekend, the elevated dining package is the perfect surprise, whether you’re treating someone special, or want to get together with friends. The experience promises to be a feast of Bord Bia Quality Assured produce across three sumptuous courses.

‘A Taste of Bloom’ curated by Neven

Set in the vibrant surroundings of the Garden View Restaurant overlooking the spectacular Show Gardens, attendees can enjoy a delicious three-course meal, thoughtfully designed by Chef Neven Maguire to showcase some of the very best ingredients from Bord Bia Quality Assured producers. Building on last year’s success, much of the produce selected will be on display in the Food Village at Bloom, providing diners with an opportunity to meet the producers after the meal and purchase ingredients to enjoy at home.

With just two sittings available each day (12 noon and 2:30 pm), the experience is expected to sell out quickly, so early booking is advised to secure your place.

A sample menu is enclosed here with vegetarian, vegan and allergen-friendly options also available. The full menu options will be available from the end of February.

Flowers, Food, and Fun

Give flowers a new meaning this Valentine’s Day with tickets to ‘A Taste of Bloom’ curated by Neven. Now available exclusively on Ticketmaster, tickets start from €89 per person (plus booking fee) and include entry to the festival on a day of choice, a three-course meal in the Garden View Restaurant, and a chance to meet Neven Maguire in person.

Bord Bia Bloom will be taking place Thursday, May 28th – Monday, June 1st. For more information and to book, visit ticketmaster.ie

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• Repak’s Most Sorted Garden wins Gold and Best in Category in the Large Garden category
• 3 in 5 (60%) of people have used empty packaging for gardening purposes, such as starting seeds, as plant pots, for watering or for creating plant labels
• Less than half of adults can correctly identify which bins tinfoil (44%), cosmetic jars (45%) and deodorant cans (50%) should go in while 71% don’t know how to recycle bleach bottles correctly
• Repak calls on visitors to Bloom to recycle just one more item per day. With an expected attendance of 100,000 people this would result in 36.5 million more items diverted from landfill, which the equivalent of 28 GAA pitches

 Repak is delighted to announce that the Repak Most Sorted Garden, designed by award-winning architect and garden designer James Purdy, has won Gold and Best in Category in the prestigious Large Garden category at Bord Bia Bloom 2025.

This stunning garden exemplifies Repak’s vision of a circular economy in action, transforming the traditional garden space into an inspiring journey through thoughtful recycling, regeneration, and design innovation. Created to engage the public in the future of recycling, the Most Sorted Garden serves as a true example that waste is not an inevitability, but a challenge that can be solved through smart design and sustainable thinking.

Speaking about the win, Zoe Kavanagh, CEO of Repak, said: “We are incredibly proud of this achievement. James Purdy has brought Repak’s vision to life with creativity and conviction. The Most Sorted Garden embodies the circular economy by proving that with considered design, we can eliminate waste and give materials a second life. This award is a testament to the importance of sustainability and innovation in shaping a greener future for Ireland.”

James Purdy, designer of Repak’s Most Sorted Garden said: “It’s an honour to receive Gold and Best in Category for the Repak Most Sorted Garden. This garden is about showing that sustainability doesn’t mean compromise, it can be beautiful, functional, and thought-provoking. I’m grateful to Repak for the opportunity to tell this story and for supporting a vision where every element is intentional, regenerative, and truly circular.”

New research from Repak carried out in advance of Bord Bia Bloom, highlighted a growing national passion for upcycling and growing confidence among the irish public when it comes to recycling, with 67% of Irish adults rate their recycling knowledge highly. However, the research also found that gaps remain around how to recycle some common household items. Less than half can correctly identify which bins tinfoil (44%), cosmetic jars (45%) and deodorant cans (50%) should go in, while 71% don’t know how to recycle bleach bottles correctly.

To help close these gaps, Repak’s Most Sorted Garden at Bord Bia Bloom will welcome thousands of visitors over the long weekend with hands-on tips and practical inspiration for better recycling habits at home and in the garden. Throughout the five-day event, the Repak Most Sorted Garden will serve as a hub for discussions, child-friendly workshops, and educational talks focused on recycling, sustainability, and Ireland’s path toward a circular economy.

The impact of small changes really adds up. If each of the 100,000 expected visitors to Bord Bia Bloom recycled just one more clean, dry, and loose item every day, this would result in an extra 36.5 million items recycled annually – enough to cover 28 GAA pitches. Nationally, if every person in Ireland recycled just one more item a day, it could divert over 1.9 billion items from landfill each year, this is equivalent to 48,362 tonnes of waste, which is eight fully packed Croke Parks.

This is James Purdy’s sixth show garden at Bord Bia Bloom. His previous designs have earned wide acclaim, including gold medals for The Podscape Garden (2016) and The Healthy Way (2019), and a silver-gilt for Love that Keelings Feeling in 2024.

Repak remains committed to leading the way in packaging recycling and educating both businesses and the public on how thoughtful choices can result in a more sustainable Ireland.

*Recycling Knowledge Audit surveyed over 1,000 people conducted by 3Gem in May 2025

Repak’s Most Sorted Garden wins Gold at Bord Bia Bloom. Pictured is garden designer and architect, James Purdy. Repak calls on visitors to Bloom to visit its Most Sorted Garden and recycle just one more item per day. With an expected attendance of 100,000 people this would result in 36.5 million more items recycled annually, which is the equivalent of 28 GAA pitches.

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 Sligo health food company Good4U has launched a new range of functional food products for children aged 3+. The innovative range introduces a new category to the children’s food aisle with a convenient, all-natural boost that delivers essential nutrients to support bone health, immunity, digestion and cognitive development. The product is currently listed in Tesco UK and was introduced for the first time in Ireland to visitors at the Bord Bia Bloom festival.

Kids Boost product range

The new “Boost” range has three offerings, including The Breakfast Boost (milled seeds and berries), Pasta Boost (milled seeds and vegetables), and Everyday Boost (milled seeds and grains) and has been formulated specifically to meet the needs of growing children, and includes essential nutrients to support bone health, immunity, digestion and cognitive development*.

The products are made with 10 plant-based ingredients to support gut health and dietary variety, are free from additives and fortified with Vitamin D from an Irish mushroom source and iodine from Atlantic seaweed. The all-natural products can be sprinkled on top of meals or simply stirred in to make healthy eating versatile and accessible, for even the pickiest of eaters!

Speaking at Bord Bia Bloom, Michelle Butler, Head of Innovation Good4U and Dietician said, “We’re thrilled to introduce this new product range to the Irish market today at Bloom, a great family festival. As a Dietician and mum of three, I understand firsthand how challenging mealtimes can be and there is a need to make eating well simple, accessible and easy to fit into busy lifestyles. We are confident that this new Boost range which expands on our existing product family will be a gamechanger for parents, and with flavours that little ones will love too!

She continued,  “Each spoonful delivers a blend of 10 different plant-based foods, helping to increase diversity and support a healthy gut microbiome. To complement the lineup of super seeds – chia, flax, and hemp – we’ve added seaweed-based calcium and vitamin D naturally extracted from UV-grown mushrooms, essential for supporting strong bones, teeth, and a healthy immune system. We use a dried kelp harvested from the west coast of Ireland, just an hour down the road from us in Sligo – a fantastic natural source of iodine, which plays a vital role in cognitive development.”

Bord Bia Trade Breakfast
As well as engaging with more than 100,000 visitors to Bord Bia Bloom over the next five days, Good4U are also attending the Bord Bia Trade Breakfast where they will have the opportunity to meet with a range of Irish retail and foodservice buyers to introduce the new product.

Listings

The Good4U Toddler Boost range is currently available to Irish consumers exclusively online  at www.good4u.co as a discovery pack which includes the range’s three products (€9). Irish retail listings will be announced in the coming months

*Nutritional benefits of Toddler Boost range

• Bone & Teeth Support – with calcium, magnesium and Irish Vitamin D

• Cognitive Function – thanks to iodine from natural seaweed

• Immune Support – with Vitamin D
• Digestive Health – featuring calcium which contributes to the normal function of digestive enzymes and gut-friendly plant diversity

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Ireland’s leading retail and foodservice buyers descended on the Food Village at Bord Bia Bloom for an early morning business event at which they met with both new and existing Irish food and drink suppliers to explore potential new business opportunities. From zero sugar to zero emissions, this year’s product offering has captured some of the growing and emerging trends in food and beverage.

Jim O’Toole, CEO, Bord Bia said “Bord Bia Bloom is a wonderful public showcase of the best of Irish horticulture, food and drink but it also offers a fantastic platform to do business. For the 100+ food and drink companies exhibiting at this year’s festival, the Bloom Trade Breakfast provides them with a much-anticipated opportunity for face-to-face engagement with decision-makers in Ireland’s leading retail and foodservice businesses. This event has a proven track record of delivering commercial business for our exhibitors and it is encouraging to see the event grow from strength to strength.” 

This was the 11^th year of the Bloom Trade Breakfast which last year generated over 100 leads and opportunities for Irish food products to gain retail listings or feature on menus in Irish foodservice outlets. Among the new business opportunities last year was an agreement between Biasol, producers of nutritious, zero-waste food products and Ireland’s largest hotel operator, Dalata Hotel Group. Following initial discussions at the 2023 Bloom Trade Breakfast, Dalata has made a commitment to stock Biasol’s range of individually packed oat bars at their Red Bean Roastery coffee dock areas in both Clayton and Maldron hotels nationwide.

Low alcohol, low sugar and low emissions 

Many of the food and drink companies this year are exhibiting products capturing emerging trends such as 00 and low alcohol options e.g. HOPE beer Hop off 0.0 brew; low and no sugar products such as Mama Bear the family-friendly low-sugar range of condiments and ketchups, and Glenilen Farm’s No Added Sugar kids yoghurt pouches; and low carbon products such as the range from Ireland’s first zero energy emissions distillery, Ahascragh Distillery from Co. Galway.

For the first time this year, Food Works, the accelerator programme for start-up food and drink companies run by Bord Bia, Enterprise Ireland and Teagasc is also hosting a stand in the Food Village to showcase a range of new products which are currently in development. The Food Works 2024 products include Blynk+ Craft Beverages; Chimac Sauces; Element Irish Whiskey; FemFuelz female supplement brand; Fire & 5^th non-alcoholic spirit alternative range; Mór Taste low sugar jams and chocolate spreads; Reso Health supplements; Shaker&Co zero alcohol gin and SomaTech fermentation.

New Product Launches
Many of the exhibiting food and drink companies also use the Bord Bia Bloom platform to introduce new products to the market. Among the new products being introduced this year are:

• Mallow Mia, Donegal who are launching a new selection of fruit and floral inspired marshmallows including rose and raspberry; orange and passionflower and lemon and elderflower
• Ballymaloe Foods, Cork who are launching a new sauce ‘Mayolish’ which combines two favourites, Ballymaloe Relish and Ballymaloe Mayo.
• Velo Coffee Roasters is introducing their new product, Velo Coffee + Protein, designed to energise and nourish.
• HOPE Beer is launching a limited-edition Fruit & Flower Sour – a passionfruit and hibiscus sour beer with a striking pink/red colour

Among the new offerings in the Bloom Inn this year is the Poitín Experience which will include a selection of four Irish Poitīn producers including Micil Distillery and Intrepid Spirits.

Buying Power

Among the buyers in attendance were some of Ireland’s largest retailers and foodservice buyers including Musgrave, Dunnes Stores, Tesco, Lidl, Aldi and M&S alongside specialist retailers such as Donnybrook Fair and Fallon and Byrne.

Prominent buyers in the Irish foodservice sector include Dalata Hotel Group, the biggest hotel chain in Ireland; Freshly Chopped food chain, forecourt operators Circle K and Applegreen and corporate providers Aramark, Compass and Sodexo. National foodservice distributors, Sysco, Musgrave Wholesale Partners and BWG Foodservice were also in attendance.

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