Pacific West Foods Ltd and Crop’s Foods Ltd were big winners of the 35th annual British Frozen Food Awards, hosted on June 15 by the British Frozen Food Federation to celebrate the quality, innovation and success of the industry over the past twelve months.
Fourteen independent consumer panels took place across the United Kingdom, which blind taste tested and scored products for appearance, taste, and aroma before considering innovation, packaging, preparation instructions, likelihood of purchase and value for money. This was then complemented by a further panel of professional chefs who also judged all the excellent products.
Pacific West Foods Ltd claimed the Foodservice Product of the Year Award for its Lemongrass & Chilli Prawns (pictured above), while apetito won the Foodservice Innovation Product of the Year Award for Chicken Tikka Specialist Nutrition Finger Food Bites. The apetito product received special recognition for its innovative and accessible design for consumers with cognitive diseases such as dementia, allowing for high-quality nutrition in easy to manage finger food bites.
D’Arta and Fleming Howden were also among the foodservice winners for their Greens Cuisin’easy Nordic Soul and Scrocchiarella Sandwich Classica, respectively.
The foodservice awards are widely respected throughout the catering industry as all the entries are impartially judged by representatives of the prestigious Craft Guild of Chefs, who, as executive chefs, catering managers and recipe developers are expert in their field and uncompromising in their assessments of the entries.
Crop’s Takes Retail Product of the Year Award
Crop’s Foods Ltd won the prestigious Retail Product of the Year Award with its new Thai Green Chicken Curry produced for Aldi. Farmyard Frozen Ltd bagged the highly anticipated prize for Retail Innovation Product of the Year for its Farmyard Gold Bar, which impressed judges with its technical innovation and premium quality.
Among the winners this year, Aldi and Farmyard Frozen Ltd scooped two Gold Awards each, with Heron Foods, Northcoast Seafoods Ltd and Freiberger UK Ltd also winning trophies for their products. Unconventional Taste took home the Gold Award in the Best New Meat Free Product category for its Unconventional Plant Based Burger.
Rupert Ashby, chief executive of the British Frozen Food Federation, commented: “This is the first Frozen Food Awards I have experienced since starting my role as chief executive last year. I have been amazed to see how thorough the independent judging process is and I am delighted that such high quality, innovative products have been recognized.
“The innovation happening across frozen is impressive and incredibly encouraging, especially considering the important role the sector has to play as we look towards a future of increased value for the consumer, which has been illustrated recently with new market data showing that frozen food has been outperforming fresh and chilled during the cost of living crisis.”
Ashby added: “Frozen food offers consumers excellent value for money without compromising on quality or taste and I am confident that the industry will continue to go from strength to strength driven by the range and diversity of products entered into the awards this year.”
