Following a record-breaking 14,205 food and drink entries from 110 countries across the world, Great Taste, the world’s largest food and drink accreditation scheme based entirely on taste, has reached its grand finale for 2022.

Announced last night at the Great Taste Golden Forks ceremony held at Southwark Cathedral, the Great Taste Golden Fork trophy for Ireland has been awarded to Scúp Gelato from Kerlogue, for its Natural Yogurt, described as “fresh and light, with a lactic tang and citrus notes”.

The Scúp Gelato Natural Yogurt is made using only the highest quality raw material sourced locally and internationally, starting firstly with Ireland’s amazing milk and cream.

Impressing the Great Taste judges with its “pretty pale lemon colour and enticing crumbled edge”, the Scúp Gelato Natural Yogurt made an impression at every stage of the blind-tasted judging process across the 90 days.

Rising to the top among hundreds of other entries from Ireland, this “fresh and so vibrant” Natural Yogurt was celebrated as the best tasting product in its region at the highly anticipated ceremony – the culmination of Great Taste – the largest and most trusted food and drink accreditation scheme on the planet – dubbed the ‘Oscars’ of the food & drink world and attended by food industry experts and influencers.

John Farrand, managing director at the Guild of Fine Food, said: “Unveiling the Great Taste Golden Fork winners is a huge honour. After months of rigorous blind-tasting and judging, it is fantastic to reveal the award-winning products and celebrate the producers’ hard work and innovation. It’s been an exceptional year for creativity and inspirational food and drink entries. Huge congratulations from all of us at GFF to all the award winners, it really isn’t easy to do what you do – I have the utmost admiration for you all. And thank you to everyone who was involved in Great Taste 2022.”

For more information on Scúp Gelato, visit www.scupgelato.com

The Great Taste Golden Fork award from Ireland was sponsored by Bord Bia. Also nominated this year were the Great Taste 3-star West of Ireland Lamb Rack from Dawn Meats Group based in Grannagh and the Supervalu Sour Cream from Musgrave Retail Partners Ireland based in Cork.

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

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This marks the most successful year ever for the brands at the Great Taste awards, and places them at number one in the Irish market.

SuperValu won 108 awards, making them number one in the multiple market in Ireland. SuperValu’s Signature Tastes range won 58 awards, further solidifying its position as the number one Premium Range for taste and quality in an Irish supermarket. Centra took home a total of 50 awards making it the number one convenience retailer in the country, including 19 awards for the Inspired by Centra premium range.

This year, SuperValu picked up five three-star awards, making SuperValu the Irish retailer with the most three-star awards, one of the highest accolades in the competition.

Three of the SuperValu Own Brand range were awarded the coveted three-star accolade. These winning products were SuperValu Sour Cream, SuperValu Summer Eating Irish Lamb Tomahawk Chops and SuperValu over-the-counter Cowboy Steak.

The retailer’s Signature Tastes range also picked up two further three-star awards for Signature Tastes Gorgonzola Cheese and Signature Tastes Gubbeen Cheese. Centra followed suit by picking up three-star awards for both Centra Sour Cream and Centra over-the-counter Cowboy Steak.

Other highlights within the winners are five awards for coffee brand Frank & Honest, one award for The Happy Pear and two awards for Moo’d ice cream.

Ian Allen, Managing Director, SuperValu and Centra said, “This was another successful year for both SuperValu and Centra at the Great Taste Awards. Our retailers took home over 100 awards including the five 3-star awards and were once again the best performing Irish supermarket and best performing Irish convenience retailer. Through SuperValu and Centra we work with over 1,800 Irish suppliers and we are delighted that so many of our products and local producers have received the recognition they deserve at these prestigious awards which are the world’s largest blind-tasted food awards.”

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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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Following 86 socially-distanced judging days in London and Dorset, Great Taste, which values taste above all else, has unearthed the very finest food and drink from every nook and corner of the UK and beyond. Regardless of branding or packaging, each product is judged on a level playing field, according to its texture, appearance, composition and of course taste. Food critics, chefs, restaurateurs, retail buyers, cooks, producers and a host of food writers, journalists and social media influencers are among the 355 esteemed palates to have rigorously blind tasted and judged the 14,113 entries from 108 countries, while providing detailed written feedback for the producer.

Black and Gold Logo

Every Great Taste award-winning product will now be able to display the unmistakable black and gold logo, a stamp of excellence that is recognised by retailers and consumers alike. A wide range of these winning products are already available to buy in delis, farm shops and independent retail outlets across the country.

Ireland reaped an incredible 21 three star awards! All Great Taste 3-star award-winning products will be re-judged to find this year’s regional Golden Fork Trophy winners and the Great Taste Supreme Champion 2021. These final results will be announced at the Great Taste Golden Fork Reception on Sunday 17 October, set to be held at the Yorkshire Event Centre in Harrogate following the first day of Fine Food Show North, a trade-only exhibition organised by the Guild of Fine Food.

The annual awards scheme, administered by the Guild of Fine Food in the UK and judged blind by a panel of 355 judges, attracted more than 14,000 entries and less than 2 per cent of those were awarded the top, three-star rating. Awards were also made at two-star level to 1,138 products, and 4,027 attained a one-star rating.

Great tasting coffee

Coffee companies performed particularly well among those attaining three-star status in Ireland, with four successful at that level: Velo Coffee’s Velo Morning Fixie, a 100 per cent Arabica espresso blend; Pure Roast Coffee’s Valentia, a Brazilian bean; Greenbean Coffee Roasters’ Torero, an Arabica blend from Mexico, Ethiopia, Brazil and Honduras, and Java The Hut’s Spezial, a Colombian natural process coffee.

Marvellous Meats

Meat products fared well, with seven three-star winners in this category. Peter Hannan of Hannan Meats, a former winner of the supreme championship at these awards, and recently awarded an MBE for his contribution to economic development in Northern Ireland, was awarded three stars for his Sugar Pit Bacon Rack.

An easy carve Hampshire breed ham fillet from the SuperValu Signature Taste range, also received three star status.

James Whelan Butchers, also a former supreme champion, took three stars for the Slow Braised Shortrib from the company’s new Dine at Home range. ABP Cahir’s Angus Bone-in Rib was also awaded three stars. Two lamb products were included in the top level, Lisdergan Butchery’s Murley Mountain Rack of Lamb, and Musgrave Retail Partners’ Signature Tastes Hill Lamb Rump Roast. Musgrave in Northern Ireland also made the three-star rankings for its Signature Tastes Riojan Chorizo Cular, a dried cured sausage from Iberian pigs.

Fish and shellfish

In the fish and shellfish category there was a strong performance from the Carlingford Oyster company which won three-star awards for its own label oysters as well at its Louet Feisser Select Carlingford Oysters, grown in A-classified waters in Carlingford Lough. Rooney Fish’s Millbay Oysters were also awarded three stars. Smoked salmon produced only one three-star this year for Serendipity Smokehouse’s Hot Smoked Salmon, with dill and black pepper.

Two apple producers are included among the Irish three-star winners, Attyflin Estate for its Rosette apple juice, and Ballyhoura Apple Farm for its glazing syrup. Only one cheese made it into this category in Ireland, Inagh Farmhouse Cheese for its St Tola in Ash. Crawfords Rock Seaweed Salt, along with Wexford Home Preserves’ Seville Marmalade and Morelli Ice Cream’s Caramelised Hazelnut variety, also earned three-star status.

Supreme champion

The 14,113 products entered for the awards were assessed at 86 socially judging sessions at four venues. The three-star products will be re-judged to determine the winner of the regional awards and the supreme champion, which will be announced on October 17th. Here is the complete list of one-, two- and three-star winners.

Three-star Irish Great Taste winners

• Attyflin Estate: Rosette Apple Juice
• Velo Coffee: Velo Morning Fixie
• Pure Roast Coffee: Valentia
• Greenbean Coffee Roasters: Torero
• Java The Hut: Spezial
• Wexford Home Preserves: Seville Marmalade
• SuperValu: Signature Taste Irish Hampshire Easy Carve Ham Fillet
• ABP Cahir: Certified Angus Bone-In Rib
• Musgrave Retail Partners: Signature Tastes Hill Lamb Rump Roast
• Serendipity Smokehouse: Hot Smoked Salmon
• Carlingford Oyster Co: Carlingford Oysters
• Carlingford Oyster Co: Louet Feisser Select Carlingford Oysters
• Inagh Farmhouse Cheese: St Tola in Ash
• Ballyhoura Apple Farm: Glazing Syrup
• James Whelan Butchers: Slow Braised Shortrib
• Crawfords Rock Seaweed Co: Seaweed Salt
• Hannan Meats: Sugar Pit Bacon Rack
• Musgraves Retail Partners NI: Signature Tastes Riojan Chorizo Cular
• Lisdergan Butchery: Murley Mountain Rack of Lamb
• Rooney Fish: Millbay Oysters
• Morelli Ice Cream: Morelli’s Cramelised

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 The winners at the prestigious 2020 Great Taste awards were announced yesterday and SuperValu took home a massive 74 award wins making them, once again, the top performing Irish supermarket at the world’s largest and most trusted food and drink awards.

Signature Tastes Range

SuperValu’s wins include 46 products from the Signature Tastes Range solidifying its position as the No. 1 Premium Range in an Irish Supermarket.

This year the always popular, SuperValu’s Signature Tastes Smoked Rack of Bacon was awarded three stars once again, making it one of the highest ranked products from an Irish retailer.

The high-quality pork is sourced from Irish Hampshire pigs reared by Luke Bogue in Cavan and the bacon is expertly hand trimmed by butchers at Oliver Carty, and gently smoked over beech and applewood.

Signature Tastes Breakfast

The Signature Tastes Breakfast essentials all performed well at the blind taste testing with Signature Tastes Sean’s Brown Bread Mix, and Signature Tastes Pink Grapefruit Juice both winning two stars each and Signature Tastes Fresh Orange Juice and Signature Tastes Irish Hampshire Dry Cure Rashers receiving one-star awards.

Irish Yogurts Clonakilty always prove popular at the awards and this year was no different. The family run business based in the heart of West Cork won stars across the board for their yogurts. The award-winning range includes; Signature Tastes Sicilian Lemon Yogurt, a thick and creamy Sicilian Zesty lemon yogurt with a fruity tang, and Signature Tastes Valencia Orange Yogurt, made with Valencia Orange which combines the very best of flavors.

Other winners at the event included Signature Tastes Maple Syrup, SuperValu Crème Fraiche, SuperValu Lamb Rack, Signature Tastes Kevin Dundon Pudding, SuperQuinn sausages, Signature Tastes Dingle gin infused smoked salmon, SuperValu Creamery Butter, Signature Tastes Buffalo Mozzarella, Signature Tastes Raspberry Conserve and SuperValu Plain Scone.

Delighted

Ray Kelly, Interim Managing Director, SuperValu said, “We are delighted to see SuperValu come out as the Top Performing Irish Supermarket at the Great Taste Awards this year with an impressive 74 awards. SuperValu works with over 1,800 Irish suppliers and we are proud that so many of our products and local producers have received the recognition they deserve at these prestigious awards which are the world’s largest blind-tasted food awards. These 74 awards are a real endorsement of the quality and value of our range as the Great Taste Awards are the acknowledged benchmark for fine food and drink.’’

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