British Frozen Food Awards showcases high quality innovation
Crop’s Foods, Pacific West Foods, and Farmyard Frozen were among the winners of the 35th annual British Frozen Food Awards, hosted on Thursday 15 June 2023 by the British Frozen Food Federation.
The awards celebrate the quality, innovation, and success of the frozen food industry over the past twelve months.
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 then complemented by a further panel of professional chefs who also judged all the excellent products.
Crop’s Foods secured the prestigious Retail Product of the Year Award with its new Thai Green Chicken Curry produced for Aldi. Meanwhile, Farmyard Frozen bagged the highly anticipated prize for Retail Innovation Product of the Year for their Farmyard Gold Bar which impressed judges with its technical innovation and premium quality.
Among the winners this year, Aldi and Farmyard Frozen scooped two Gold Awards each, with Heron Foods, Northcoast Seafoods and Freiberger UK also winning trophies for their products. Unconventional Taste took home the Gold Award in the Best New Meat Free Product category for their Unconventional Plant Based Burger.
In the foodservice categories, Pacific West Foods claimed the Foodservice Product of the Year Award 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 high-quality nutrition in easy to manage finger food bites.
D’Arta and Fleming Howden were also among the foodservice winners for the Greens Cuisin’easy Nordic Soul and Scrocchiarella Sandwich Classica respectively.
The foodservice awards are impartially judged by representatives of the prestigious Craft Guild of Chefs, who, as executive chefs, catering managers and recipe developers, are experts in their field and uncompromising in their assessments of the entries.
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 recognised at this year’s awards.
He noted that 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.
Mr 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.”
