Food Manufacture Excellence Awards shaken up to include new categories

And now they are bigger and better than ever before, with new categories designed to showcase excellence in even more areas.

Judged by a panel of experts, which collectively commands more than 100 years of industry experience, even being shortlisted for these awards carries prestige. However, winners find the experience pays dividends in terms of media and commercial recognition.

Don’t just take our word for it. “It’s always an honour to be recognised at such a prestigious event for the industry. At Dalehead Foods we pride ourselves on our high standards and the Food Manufacture Excellence Awards are highly regarded among our staff and customers.”

Those are the words of Daleheads Foods, the company that won Meat, Poultry & Seafood Manufacturing Company of the Year at the 2017 event.

Bigger and better

Held on 7 November this year at London Hilton Park on Park Lane, the awards are now bigger than ever. Building on last year’s success, the process now includes separate streams designed around the needs of large and small businesses.

Winners of the nine category awards are chosen by the judges for excellence in one field of food and drink, from ambient to foodservice and from bakery to ingredients. They must show excellence in at least three of ten areas, from product development and innovation to training and from production and processing to efficiency and waste management.

Devotees of the FMEAs will recognise familiar main categories catering for manufacturers producing ambient food, baked goods, dairy and, of course meat, poultry and seafood.

However, this year we have shaken things up a bit. We have split the beverages award into two separate categories, one for soft drinks and one for alcoholic beverages.

We have introduced a foodservice award for manufacturers specialising in the dynamic foodservice sector, whose customers may be in hospitality, the restaurant trade or public services such as schools or hospitals.

We have launched a new main category award specifically for ingredients manufacturers, introduced a frozen food category and combined the chilled and fresh produce categories in one.

Separate streams for small and large businesses

As outlined, as with all the other awards, all these main categories will have two streams, one for entrants whose turnover is under £10m and one for businesses whose sales are above that level.

Not only is winning one of these main category awards a huge bonus for any food and drink manufacturer, but a win in one of the main categories for large or small outfits gives them a shot at the main title: Food Manufacture Company of the Year.

Food Manufacture Company of the Year is the ultimate accolade any food or drink processing business could win. Only the winners of our category awards are eligible to be considered, with the overall victor chosen and validated by our esteemed panel of industry experts, based on how well they have demonstrated excellence in comparison with peers.

There are other changes too, with four new Industry Initiative Awards and four new People Awards (see box).

Industry Initiative and People Awards

The Industry Initiative stream comprises the Training, Supply Chain Partnership, Technology Partnership and Export awards. Entrants must outline an exemplary initiative in one of these areas and be able to outline how their achievements in the areas benefited both the business and its customers.

Entrants to the People Awards Site Team of the Year, Future Business Leader and Apprentice of the Year awards must convey how promising teams, individual staff and training initiatives have delivered key benefits. However, our Business Leader of the Year is chosen from a shortlist nominated by industry for services to their business and to the sector as a whole.

You have to be in them to win them, so don’t delay: enter today. The process is now purely handled online, making it easier than ever.

Visit our dedicated FMEA website to learn more on what is required for entry to all the categories and start your entry now. Hurry: the entry deadline is 30 July, which may seem like a long way off, but will come around quicker than you think.

Or perhaps you are curious to explore the considerable benefits of sponsoring a category, there’s more information on how to start that process on the website as well. Watch this space for more details.

This year's Food Manufacture Excellence Awards are kindly sponsored by KDH Projects and Systems Integration.