Major UK food award for Peter Hannan of Hannan Meats
Northern Ireland food innovator Peter Hannan, managing director of the multi-award winning Hannan Meats, has won one of the most prestigious awards for his innovation and enterprise in food and business from the BBC.
Mr Hannan, a Food NI board member, gained the Derek Cooper Award at the annual BBC Food and Farming Awards. Named after the programme’s first presenter, the award is for the individual or organisation whose work has brought about real change in our relationship with food.
The award aims to recognise the often unsung heroes who’ve made a real difference to knowledge and appreciation of good food. The winner is decided by the expert judging panel.
The BBC Food and Farming Awards were launched in 2000, to mark the 20th anniversary of Radio 4’s The Food Programme. The awards aim “to honour those who have done most to promote the cause of good food”.
The first judging team included Derek Cooper, the founding presenter of the Food Programme. Subsequent judges have come from a cross-section of the food world – chefs, academics, retail analysts, writers and campaigners.
Mr Hannan established Hannan Meats in 1991 as a catering butchery business. The company, which is based at Moira in county Armagh, has pioneered the dry-aging of beef and lamb in the world’s biggest complex of Himalayan salt chambers and also the curing of bacon using sugar pit and other novel techniques.
He has established Glenarm Shorthorn beef from county Antrim as among the world’s best and tastiest.
The company sources, produces and supplies a range of exceptional meat products for high-end restaurants and five-star hotels as well as selected retailers in Britain and exports to Michelin star restaurants especially in France.
In addition, Hannan Meats has won widespread acclaim for outstandingly tasty meats. The company has won more UK Great Taste Awards than any other producer in the UK and Ireland including two supreme champion award, the only company in the UK and Ireland to achieve this coveted accolade twice.
