Fine Food Awards 2011 - Entry Terms

This year’s awards are being supported by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) supported Food and Drink Growth Programme.

To be eligible to enter, producers must meet the following criteria:

• Be an SME based within the Northwest region
  • An SME is any enterprise with fewer than 250 employees and either less than €50m turnover or less than €43m net assets
  • If a potential SME is more than 25% owned by a large company it no longer remains an SME

• Be registered as trading as a sole trader, partnership or limited company
  • You may be asked for proof of trading status
  • A failure to provide proof on request would render your entry void 

• Be producing food or drink items in the region

• Use Northwest sourced ingredients wherever possible

• Supply a full ingredients list, shelf life information and cooking/preparation instructions where required. A failure to provide any of these will render the entry void

Due to funding restrictions the following companies are not eligible to enter:

• Catering outlets e.g. restaurants, cafes etc where the food is only available to buy onsite

• Farms producing fruit and vegetables which are not processed in any way.  The ERDF programme is unable to support primary producers. Items which are processed in any way (e.g. potato gratin or fruit chutney) are eligible.

Other conditions and information:

• A maximum of three entries per organisation are permitted
• Judging takes place in May, you will be contacted after the closing date with details of where/when to send your products
• Products deemed ‘excellent’ within the scoring criteria will receive a Food NW ‘Heart’ Award
• Products deemed ‘outstanding’ within the scoring criteria will receive a Food NW ‘Gold Heart’ Award
• 'Gold Heart' winners will go through to a second round of judging to find a supreme champion
• By entering products in to the competition, you agree to be contacted by Food NW and its partners to discuss free business development opportunities through the ERDF Food & Drink Growth Programme and other opportunities
• Any disputes must be lodged with Food NW within 7 days of the judging
• The decision of the judges is final