The FreeFromFoods Awards shortlist……

Bread tastingThe wires have been, as you would expect, humming since the publication  of the FreeFrom Food Awards shortlist on Wednesday. A few disappointments that judges had not found favourite products quite as irresistible as hoped but  a great deal more joy as freefrom companies both new and old found that their products had indeed found favour!

‘I would just like to say a big ‘thank you’ for this great news. I had hoped that maybe we would receive one nomination but two – far better than I could have hoped!  Fantastic!’

‘Just wanted to say hurray – and many thanks for letting us know and everything. Really over the moon to be shortlisted again.’

‘Just seen the shortlist – the team are ecstatic!’

‘THANK YOU!!!!! So much!!! One year old and we are SO proud to have entered three sausages and got all three on the shortslist! To be honest, we are quite overwhelmed! ‘

And there really was an amazing selection to choose from – the full list is to be found on the awards site here but here were just a few of the highlights that I picked out for the press release:

• Dell’Ugo fresh gluten-free Chickpea Fusilli (the first pulse-based pasta we have met)

• La Zaragozana Ambar Green no-alcohol gluten-free beer  (the first no-alcohol gluten-free beer)

• Eskal Edible gluten-free Ice Cream Party Tubs

• Good Wine Online Sulphite-free wines  (one of the few sulphite-free wines – a growing area)

• Vivesoy Cappuccino/Soy Milk    (an interesting thing to do with soya milk)

• Raw Ecstasy Activated Walnuts – dairy-free, gluten-free raw chocolate

• Eat Water gluten, dairy and calorie free Slim Pasta – Spaghetti     (amazing product made from a plant fibre)

• Freedom Deli gluten-free Tuna Melt Panini  (first gluten free panini we have met)

• Sweetcheeks gluten and dairy-free Pistachio & Lemon Zest Loaf

• Afia’s Gluten-free Spicy Mix Vegetable Samosa    (first gluten-free samosa we have met)

• Cornito Sea Waves gluten-free corn and potato pasta    (unusual and pretty shape and unusual ingredient combination)

• Clearspring Sweet Grains Dessert Amazake   (very classic Japanese dessert product – just rice….. but massively free from and healthy)

And now we are on to organising the party which will take place on the 16th April with our patron,  Antony Worrall Thompson, presenting the prizes as usual. We already have prospective guests queuing at the door (well, queuing for tickets anyhow) so we anticipate a good turnout!! More anon….

Meanwhile, if you would like to know more about our new Childrens’ food category – read Christine Bailey’s account of the kids’ judging session (for kids, by kids…) – and if you are interested in how those gluten-free beers are coming along, check out Sue Cane’s report on the beer judging session.

Children's judging session

 

FreeFrom Food Awards media saturation!!!

Just in case anyone has not picked up on it from any other source……

Freefrom food and the FreeFrom Food Awards will feature both in Radio 4′s Food Programme on Sunday (18th) at 12.30pm, repeated on Monday (19th) at 3.30pm and….. on BBC 1′s Breakfast on Monday (19th) at 6.20am and 8.20am and, we hope, at 7.20am!!

As you might imagine, we are all very excited…….. Do please tune in!!
20th March. In case you did not catch either of these – we would like to report great coverage for ‘freefrom’ – really raising the profile. And another big article on freefrom in today’s Daily Mail.
The Food Programme gave particularly good, in depth coverage of the the whole area of food allergy and intolerance – if you missed it, you can’listen again’or download it as a podcast from the BBC site.

FreeFrom Food Awards shortlist is out!!

Hectic – but hey – that’s what it’s all about!! The 2012 FreeFrom FoodAwards shortlist was published this morning – and almost instantly our internet connection went down! So all those keen shortlisted manufacturers, dying to get their hands on their logo and a press release to send out to their local papers, were left frustrated while we railed at Virgin Media!!!

Never mind – R. Branson came to the rescue and the outage only last for an hour, to be followed by another half hour this afternoon. (And how scary is it when your internet connection goes down and you realise that your whole life now depends on that slender little bit of cable sticking out of the pathway in front of your house….) So, between outages, press releases and logos whizzed through cyberspace while Twitter went into a frenzy of ‘freefrom’ Tweeting and Facebook buzzed with congratulations.

I shall now say no more about it as what you need to do is to go look on the awards site where you will find all the shortlisted products (with links to their websites) – and then have a read of some of the blog posts by our wonderful blogger judges – and you will find links to them on the press page on the awards site. They will give you much better ‘low down’ on the whole operation than, in all modesty, I could!

Addendum….   Sue Cane, our wonderful coeliac beer-and-everything-else judge has written a lovely  report about this year’s gluten-free beer judgingclick here to read.