A number of former SRFDA winners have gone on to celebrate further success, with wins at this year’s Scotland Food & Drink Excellence Awards.
The event, hosted by First Dates star Fred Sirieix, took place at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre last Thursday (7 September) and saw 14 tasted awards and seven business awards presented.
Mossgiel Organic Farm, which has previously won two SRFDA awards including a Gold last year, claimed the evening’s headline Product of the Year award for its Mossgiel Organic Milk. The aforementioned cow juice was also cream of the crop in the Dairy Product of the Year category. The Ayrshire farm, with its ‘any fresher it would still be grass’ tagline, was also praised for its sustainability messaging by judges.
Lazy Day Foods won the Bakery Product of the Year for its Mini Vic the Vegan Caterpillar Cake and Nudie Snacks claimed the Free From Award for its Cauliflower Crisps. Both products won Silver awards at this year’s SRFDAs.
Aye Pickled Kimchi was named Healthier Choice Product of the Year. This follows Edinburgh-based Aye Pickled’s success at the 2021 SRFDAs, when its Kimchi Hot Sauce picked up an award.
Double SRFDA Platinum award-winning ice cream maker Mackie’s of Scotland won the Sustainability award. Celebrating on Facebook, the Aberdeenshire-based business said: “This award adds to our collection of recognition we have already seen this year at a number of award ceremonies.
“It’s a delight for us to see all our hard work recognised at prestigious events like these.”
Meanwhile Aldi, with six Platinum SRFDA gongs in three years, was named Employer of the Year for its focus on staff training and development, and employee wellbeing.
Iain Baxter, chief executive at Scotland Food & Drink, commented: “The Excellence Awards highlights the commitment and passion of the industry to preserve and adapt through some of the most difficult times.
“The calibre of entries this year demonstrates the resilience and the entrepreneurial spirit of our industry is driving innovation and truly excellent products.”
The event was organised by Scotland Food & Drink in partnership with The Royal Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland and headline sponsor Asda.
Congratulating all of the winners, Ashley Connolly, local buying manager for Scotland at Asda and head judge for the tasted product categories, said: “The standard of entry was as high as ever this year, so the winning products had to be exceptional.”
The awards follow the news that the Scottish food and drink sector has reached a record high value, contributing £14.8bn to the Scottish economy.
Visit the Excellence Awards website for a full list of winners.
