Guild of Fine Food offers judging to micro producers

January 19, 2023

In celebration of the 30th anniversary of Great Taste, the Guild of Fine Food (GFF) is offering 50 micro producers – with snack and bakery producers among them – the opportunity to showcase one new product in front of its expert panel of Great Taste judges for free.

Great Taste is recognised as a food and drink accreditation, providing any food and drink producer the opportunity to have its products assessed by chefs, buyers, food writers and retailers.

The new bursary is aimed at micro producers who haven’t entered Great Taste before, or have a new product which hasn’t been entered before. The bursary panel consists of Adrian Boswell, Buyer at Selfridges, Industry Commentator and Food Entrepreneur Mallika Basu and PR & Marketing Expert AJ Sharp, who will be responsible for selecting the 50 most eligible entries.

“We’ve always been about working with businesses across the industry and our activities have an ecosystem of scaled entry costs that mean our biggest entrants also support our smallest ones,” said John Farrand, Managing Director of The GFF. “It’s true, though, that the micro producers often need more help, especially with the current economic headwinds, and that is why we are excited to be launching the Great Taste Bursary. By helping fledging makers, we continue the great work that our team, our judges, and the sector is doing to nurture start-ups and innovative new businesses. It will encourage and help the very smallest makers to enter.”

“If our bursary candidates go on to achieve an award, they will be able to display it on packaging and benefit from support and kudos which comes with a Great Taste award. If they are not successful, our rigorous judging process provides every entrant with impartial, honest feedback from industry experts. And that is incredibly valuable,” he added.

Every year, over 2300 artisan producers from across the UK and the world enter prized products into Great Taste to receive the judges’ feedback. Those eligible for this year’s edition must be less than two years old, have a turnover of less than UK£100,000, only enter one product per business and be commercially available in the UK.

“I’ve been judging Great Taste for over ten years and understand the good it does to the wider food & drink sector. It’s important for my buying role in the food hall to know what’s out there and who are the emerging and quality makers. Great Taste has always done that but being involved in assessing applications to the bursary can only improve that market awareness and, more importantly, the initiative will encourage innovative producers to take part,” commented Adrian Boswell, Buyer at Selfridges.

Previous winners include Gail’s Artisan Bakery and The Bertinet Bakery. Applications must be received by 7 February 2023, while bursary winners will be announced on 24 February.

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