Scotland Food & Drink awards return this autumn
SCOTLAND Food & Drink has unveiled the shortlist for its Excellence Awards, recognising outstanding producers from across the nation.
A total of 248 entries were submitted across 14 categories for this year’s Scotland Food & Drink Excellence Awards.
The final shortlist comprises 48 individual items from 36 suppliers, having been whittled down by industry expert judges including buyers from some of the UK’s biggest retailers.
Shortlisted products include everything from Scottish Beef Biltong produced by Errichel & Thyme and Native Hebridean Smoked Scottish Salmon from The Scottish Salmon Company, to Chocolate Cornflake Clusters from Lazy Day Foods.
The winners will be revealed on 8 September at a ceremony to be held in the Edinburgh International Conference Centre. This year’s final is the 21st Scotland Food & Dirnk Excellence Awards and the first such event since the onset of the pandemic.
John Davidson, deputy chief executive and strategy director at Scotland Food & Drink, said: “The Excellence Awards play an important role in recognising the innovation and creativity of everyone that is building the reputation of Scotland’s larder.
“It was fantastic to see such a range of producers and individuals in this year’s entries and a massive congratulations to all those that have been named in the shortlist. We can’t wait to bring everyone together after a challenging couple of years and celebrate in September.”
Ashley Connolly, local buying manager at Asda and an awards judge, said: “Our customers are becoming increasingly conscious of where their food and drink is coming from and so our focus is to source high quality and innovative products that are new and exciting.
“I was delighted to be involved in the judging of this year’s Excellence Awards and it was wonderful to see such a high calibre of entries across all product categories.”
