Celebrating its 30th year, Great Taste has unveiled 2023’s award winners this month – and it’s a truly global affair. Organised by the Guild of Fine Food, this year’s process saw a panel of judges try out 14,195 entries from 109 countries, with food & drink travelling from as far away as Mexico, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Rwanda and Iceland.
Over 89 judging days, they whittled down entries to a selection of 248 3-star products and 1,568, 2-star items, and awarded 1-star to 4,088. Among these, almost half of 3-star winners came from overseas.
There was natural honey from CD Colmenares in Chile, Hungarian pumpkin seed oil from Natur Press Team and Sara Saffron’s Super Negin from Iran. Closer to home, the UK’s producers shone in this year’s competition as well.
B-Corp cheesemaker Sharpham Dairy was given a 3-star for its Cremet goats’ cheese. Serial-winner The Artisan Kitchen was very successful, with seven marmalades and the 2022 Golden Fork winning Blaisdon Red Plum Jam all awarded 3-stars.
Last year’s Supreme Champion, Kadode Kampot Pepper also claimed a 3-star with a new entry: Young Green Kampot Peppercorns.
The finale of the awards will take place on Monday 11th September at the Great Taste Golden Forks ceremony and tasting at Battersea Arts Centre in London. The event will crown the best food and drink from around the world and the Supreme Champion for 2023, as well as awards for ‘Startisan of the year’, the Nigel Barden Heritage Award and the Guild of Fine Food Lifetime Achievement award. Entrants can access their results and feedback on myguild.gff.co.uk
This article first appeared in the August 2023 edition of Fine Food Digest.
