Fourteen independent consumer panels took place across the UK, which blind-tested and marked products for appearance, taste and aroma, before considering innovation, packaging, preparation instructions, likelihood of purchase and value for money. This was complemented by a panel of professional chefs.
Crop’s Foods Ltd secured the prestigious Retail Product of the Year Award with its new Thai Green Chicken Curry produced for Aldi. Meanwhile, Farmyard Frozen Ltd bagged the highly anticipated prize for Retail Innovation Product of the Year for their Farmyard Gold Bar.
Aldi and Farmyard Frozen Ltd scooped two Gold Awards each, with Heron Foods, Northcoast Seafoods Ltd and Freiberger UK Ltd also landing trophies. Unconventional Taste won the Gold Award for Best New Meat Free Product, for their Unconventional Plant Based Burger.
In the foodservice categories, Pacific West Foods Ltd claimed the Foodservice Product of the Year for its Pacific West Lemongrass & Chilli Prawns, while apetito won the Foodservice Innovation Product of the Year Award for its Chicken Tikka Specialist Nutrition Finger Food Bites. The apetito product received special recognition for its innovative and accessible design for individuals with cognitive diseases such as dementia, allowing for highquality 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.All entries are impartially judged by representatives of the prestigious Craft Guild of Chefs, who are experts in their field and uncompromising in their assessments of entries.
Rupert Ashby, chief executive of the British Frozen Food Federation, said: “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 am delighted that such high-quality products have been recognised.