Since I’d helped out by judging the TeaTime category again this year, I was invited to the Awards ceremony for the Free From Food Awards last night. The image on this page is of the list of gluten free beers available on the evening…
You can find the full list of winners on the Free From Food Awards website, so I’ll just give you my own highlights of the evening, based on my notes:
- I was delighted that White Rabbit Pizza won the Pasta and Pizza category. We tasted their pizza at the Allergy Show in Liverpool this year, and it is simply the best gluten free pizza we’ve had.
- I’m going to look up Oast to Host products (their quiche won the Food to Go category) – sadly, it looks as though there’s nowhere near me that stocks them, so it might have to wait until I can get south again.
- I’m also going to check out the Coconom Coconut Aminos, which is a soy, gluten, dairy and wheat-free soy sauce replacement containing 17 essential amino acids, B vitamins and minerals. This sounds amazing.
- To nobody’s surprise, Tesco won the Retailer of the Year category. They really have worked wonders over the last few years, with fab new products seemingly coming out all the time (they won in the Breakfast category for their garlic baguette, in the Down the Pub category, their onion rings were highly commended, and in the Food for Children category, they won with their chicken fillets, and their Free From Carl the Caterpillar birthday cake was highly commended)
- I also noted that Tesco sponsored the Start-up/New Business category, offering mentoring to the winner—I think this is a great prize, and likely to be very useful to the winner (Seed & Sage, this year).
There are a long list of other products I’m going to investigate, from Rollagranola’s granola to SweetPea Pantry’s pancake mix… do look at the list of winners and see what you’d like to try.
That’s the thing about the Free From Food Awards; they’re a great way of spreading the word about your products. I chatted to MummyBakes last night (one commended and two highly commended products in the TeaTime category this year, and one product shortlisted last year) for whom the Awards have been very helpful—they’re now stocked in Fortnum & Mason.
So if you are a manufacturer of an amazing free from product – or know someone who is – do consider entering next year. You never know…the overall winner was Nutribix this year, but next year, it could be you!
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