Great Taste Supreme Champion Award for Hannan Meats
Article written by Sam Butler
Food NI member Hannan Meats has been named Supreme Champion 2016 in the prestigious Great Taste Awards for its Glenarm Shorthorn Four Rib Roast and also gained the Northern Ireland regional Golden Fork Award.
The Northern Ireland meat processor is the first to win the Supreme Champion Award twice.
The Supreme Champion Award, the most prestigious of its kind in the food industry, was presented to Peter Hannan, managing director of Hannan Meats, at the Great Taste finals at a gala dinner in London.
Mr Hannan said: “We are delighted to have won the Supreme Champion Award for the second time. It’s a tremendous endorsement by a panel of expert judges of the quality, outstanding taste and innovation underpinning all our products.
“It’s great to bring the award back to Northern Ireland especially during our first ever Year of Food and Drink.”
The annual event was hosted by the UK Guild of Fine Food, the organisation which runs the Great Taste Awards. Invest Northern Ireland is the sponsor of the regional Golden Fork.
Hannan Meats is one of the most successful companies in the Great Taste Awards and was previously Supreme Champion in 2012. The company, which is based in Moira, county Down, gained a record breaking 59 gold stars for 36 meat products in this year’s Great Taste Awards.
The small business, famed for its Himalayan salt chamber for ageing meat, now has more gold stars than any other company in the UK and Ireland.
Hannan Meats also had three products listed by the UK Guild of Fine Food in this year’s Top 50 Foods. It has won the Northern Ireland regional award in 2012, 2013 and 2014.
The company’s products were among 13 from eight Northern Ireland firms to win the top prize of three gold stars from the guild’s expert judges.
In total, 212 products from Northern Ireland won stars. Abernethy Butter, Thompson’s Family Teas, Kearney Blue Cheese and Dale Farm were among the others who secured the top, three-star badge of quality.
This year’s awards were chosen from 10,000 food and drink products from the British Isles and parts of Europe.
