Great Taste Awards 2010

The Oscars of the food world are upon us again.

I think all the judging is complete and the Gold Award winners will be announced over the summer with the grand awards ceremony at Fortnum & Mason’s on 6th September.  I say “I think” the judging is complete as I wasn’t invited to judge this year.  I believe I upset the Guild of Fine Food Retailers last year by using my calculator to calculate the revenue from the entries, and making a note that the judges weren’t paid their expenses! So, persona non grata, this despite spending money advertising with them.

Anyway, I was interested to hear in the introduction of this month’s “Fine Food Digest” that Bob Farrand feels that he has got egg on his face this year, because some of the supermarket own label products have won 2 and 3 star gold awards, making them the best in class within certain categories.

No doubt we will hear details of which products soon, but interesting that Mr Farrand has chosen to spill the beans before the awards are officially announced, presumably to damper down the media coverage nearer the time.  I am sure the judged for the Regional and National Awards announced on 6th September will be aware of which products are supermarket own label!   How embarrassing would that be, otherwise!

Well, it is only embarrassing if we continually stress that all supermarket food is rubbish.  It clearly isn’t.  There are some very good products in the supermarkets - and also some very bad ones.  The reason many people choose not to do all their shopping in the supermarket is generally for other reasons as well as quality: ambiance, food miles, quality of service, provenance, being able to taste products before they buy, etc, etc.   No-one should be embarrassed that supermarket own label products have won Great Taste Awards - if only by the law of averages some products out of 20,000 skus would be best in class.  The offering of the independent retailers offering a large range of products not available in the supermarkets and made by people who care about good food and pass that information and knowledge onto their consumers is always going to trump anything the supermarkets offer.  Also the knowledge that the supermarkets in all likelihood have screwed their suppliers down to the bare bones, so they have less margin to make good food products in the future should be enough to put many of us off supporting them.

Despite the downturn in the weather, have a good week.