As announced by the Guild of Fine Food, entries for the World Cheese Awards 2023 are open until 8 September, with entries traveling to Norway by boat, truck, train, and plane via consolidation points around the world.

The event is part of the Oste V-M cheese festival at Trondheim Spektrum, Norway, on Friday 27^th of October 2023 and will be supported by HANEN, the national organisation for rural tourism and farm produce in Norway. Taking place from 27^th-28^th of October, Oste V-M will see 4,000 food and cheese-lovers come together for cheese tastings, family activities and a trade conference. The Guild of Fine Food will also be organising a World Cheese Market around the judging arena on 27^th and 28^th of October and special tasting tours around the World Cheese Awards arena on Saturday 28^th of October.

A truly global event, the World Cheese Awards brings together cheesemakers, retailers, buyers, consumers, media, and food experts, to honour the best cheeses from across the globe and celebrate the best in cheesemaking. It will be attended by 250 judges from more than 38 different countries.

“At this year’s event we will witness the innovation and creativity that has emerged within our World Cheese Awards community over the past year,” John Farrand, managing director of the Guild of Fine Food, organisers of the competition, said. “We look forward to collaborating with you all in the vibrant city of Trondheim to make this remarkable tribute to cheese and cheesemakers from across the globe”.

“We are delighted to have the opportunity to showcase Norway’s remarkable food and beverage culture by hosting the World Cheese Awards 2023,” Bernt Bucher Johannessen, managing director of HANEN commented. “We eagerly anticipate welcoming the global cheese and dairy community to Norway and are optimistic that some of our very own cheesemakers will participate.”

Cheesemakers wanting to compete should head to www.gff.co.uk/wca to enter. Global consolidation points have been organised by the Guild of Fine Food, to receive entries from cheesemakers and transport them to the judging venue, under controlled conditions. This makes it easier for entrants, especially smaller producers, to send their cheeses internationally, as the consolidation points will assist with export paperwork and provide a convenient local point for cheesemakers to deliver their cheese.

The consolidation points are totally unique to the World Cheese Awards and no other competition has such a far-reaching network offering safe and subsidised delivery for entries.

In the largest global cheese-only event, cheese producers strive to earn recognition through Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Super Gold awards, as well as coveted country and cheese-specific trophies. Working in teams of two or three, the judges identify any cheeses worthy of a gold, silver, or bronze award. They look at the rind and the body of the cheese, its colour, texture, consistency and, most importantly, its taste. Each team then nominates one exceptional cheese as the Super Gold from their table.

These exceptional cheeses are identified as the best in the world and go on to be judged a second time by a Super Jury made up of 16 internationally recognised experts, who each select one cheese to champion in the final round of judging. The Super Jury, coming together to represent all four corners of the globe, then debate the final cheeses in front of a live consumer and trade audience, before choosing the World Champion Cheese live on WCA TV, with cheese lovers and enthusiasts from around the globe tuning in to watch the event unfold.

In addition to the Bronze, Silver, Gold and Super Gold prizes, there are country and cheese specific trophies.

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Launching in Sainsbury’s this week, the second addition to the brand’s ‘Creamy’ product range is crafted to offer consumers a perfect balance of garlic and herbs with a wonderful creamy texture.

This dairy-free alternative is the perfect soft cheese partner for many favourite recipes and is suitable for everyone to enjoy. A versatile spread that will enhance a multitude of culinary creations, its smooth and creamy texture spreads perfectly onto toasted bagels or could also be stirred into sauces for a creamy twist.

Pack it for your summer picnics for a plant-based surprise or bring it out at your weekend barbecue to slather on grilled corn on the cob: this is the ideal accompaniment for the nation’s favourite summer meals.

Unlike traditional cream cheeses, Violife’s plant-based offering is free from the top 14 allergens, including dairy, soya, gluten, lactose, and nuts, as well as preservatives, is non-GMO and is fortified with vitamin B12, making it the perfect choice for those with dietary preferences or restrictions.

With Violife’s delicious plant-based alternative-to-cheese range having less than half the carbon emissions and occupying two thirds less of the land to produce, when compared to dairy products, you can enjoy all your Creamy favourites, whilst doing a little something for the planet.

“With Violife having the highest shopper loyalty and Violife Creamy Original in particular being the number one ranked plant-based soft cheese brand, we’re delighted to be extending the range to offer a new and exciting flavour choice for shoppers this summer,” Jess Millner, Senior Brand Manager at Violife said. “At Violife, we believe in making small changes to create a big impact. Developing easy swaps and delectable products encourages consumers to try plant-based alternatives.

“We want to help show consumers that eating a more plant-based diet doesn’t mean you have to give up your favourite recipes, but instead, it’s about ‘adding’ to your diet and enjoying simple and delicious twists to your favourite dishes.

“We have an exciting new product pipeline in the works, and we’re proud to be the leading plant-based alternative-to-cheese brand encouraging more Brits to try super simple vegan swaps that are better for our planet without sacrificing on flavour.”

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This latest addition is a convenient, pre-workout shot, packed with 200mg of caffeine to help boost alertness and enhance your workouts.

These all-natural, easy-to-consume shots have the added benefit of endurance-boosting Beta-Alanine, to give you everything you need to get the results you strive towards. Containing no added sugar and just 16 calories per shot, Warrior Rage energy shots are available in a delicious tropical flavour and suitable for vegetarian and vegans. Each box contains 12 power-packed shots to take daily, 15-30 minutes before your workout for maximum results.

The energy shots will be listed in Euro Garages petrol stations across the UK, which is yet another achievement for KBF Enterprises, owner of Warrior, on track to achieve £35m in sales in 2023.

“We are excited to be expanding our Warrior range to include the new Warrior Rage energy shots,” Kieran Fisher, Founder of Warrior and KBF Enterprises®, commented. “This is an entirely new category of the sports nutrition market that we are entering, and we are confident that it will be a huge success with new and existing customers.”

Warrior is owned by KBF Enterprises and was created with a single purpose in mind – to improve the athletic performance and mental focus of those who consume them. The company’s aim is to help those from all walks of life with any challenge they may have, whether it be a hardcore training session, workplace meeting or student assignment.

Warrior Rage Tropical Sourz Energy Shots are available to buy from www.teamwarrior.com, at £14.99 for a box of 12.  

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For the first time since its inception in 2006 G’Vine has released both a new recipe and bottle design resulting from the partnership between Jaime Lorente and Jean-Sébastien Robicquet; G’Vine creator, master distiller and owner of independent French distillery Maison Villevert. 

The G’Vine Jaime Lorente Limited Edition release marks the launch of the ’El Vividor’ (good living) campaign; a campaign that launches this Spring to pay tribute to those who know how to enjoy life to the full. This campaign is the Spanish regional arm of the international G’Vine campaign ‘Gin Your Way’ launched in 2022.

Since working together Robicquet and Lorente found great synergy in their personalities, sharing passion for life and the importance of exploring creativity. These notions of being daring and the enthusiasm for the art of living are integral themes for G’Vine, so they decided to let their imaginations run wild and design a new edition of their gin.

To develop the gin, Lorente travelled to France where together with Robicquet, using Robicquet’s exceptional nose and palate, they developed a new recipe inspired by Lorente’s roots using ingredients that echo his childhood and a design that reflects his elegant and rebellious personality. The resulting gin combines the fresh and smooth finish of G’Vine and its spicy bouquet with rising notes of bell pepper, citrus and notes of raspberry with respective influences coming together in a harmonious roundness awakened by a final note of pepper.

The synonymous green G’Vine bottle has also welcomed the Lorente flourish; a sweeping orange illuminates the base reflecting the vibrancy of his personality, elegant and rebellious, and his passion for the theme ‘El Vividor’ (the good living) which pays tribute to those who know how enjoy life to the full.

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Aldi will trial the deployment of Polytag’s invisible UV tags onto its packaging, starting from July 2023. With the company’s unique readers installed at the Biffa Teeside recycling centre, item-level recycling data will be captured in real time, providing Aldi with insights on the quantity of its packaging that is actually recycled and allowing the retailer to track an item’s journey through the recycling process.

This previously inaccessible packaging lifecycle information will help the supermarket accurately measure and track its performance against its sustainability targets, such as halving its plastic footprint by 2025.

“Leading retailers in the UK are awake to the fact that the only way we will truly tackle the waste problem in this country is by using data,” Alice Rackley, CEO of Polytag, said. “Gaining access to real-time packaging lifecycle information will be a game-changer, enabling retailers to develop a greater understanding of their products’ journey and make meaningful progress towards their sustainability pledges.”

Luke Emery, Plastics and Packaging Director at Aldi UK, added: “We are constantly working to be a more sustainable retailer, so we are excited to see how Polytag’s technology will enable us to access and analyse more data around our packaging lifecycles, and use these learnings to accelerate our progress towards our sustainability goals.”

Polytag’s UV tag reading technology was developed in partnership with researchers at the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre. To learn more about Polytag’s ground-breaking technology and get a free demonstration, visit its website here: https://www.polytag.co.uk/

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“BioMar’s holistic approach to sustainability, with Blue Impact addressing multiple sustainability challenges in the industry, is a key driver for us switching to this diet,” Mark Warrington, Managing Director of Loch Duart, said. “At Loch Duart, we are serious about reducing our impact on the planet because it’s the right thing to do. With this switch in feed, we will take another major step in the right direction while further improving the health and quality of our unrivalled Scottish salmon.”

“Loch Duart salmon are as close to wild as you’ll find in the market, and we firmly believe in feeding our fish what they naturally want to eat: a diet high in marine content,” Chris Orr, Sales Director at Loch Duart, said. “We also believe this diet should not come at the expense of the environment. BioMar’s Blue Impact will not only reduce our carbon footprint but will help reduce the Fish Forage Dependency Ratio by increasing the use of circular ingredients and responsibly managing the world’s resources. This increases the sustainability of how we raise our salmon without compromising the taste, texture, or high Omega-3 levels that our customers love, and Loch Duart is famous for.”

“Blue Impact is our flagship diet dedicated to sustainability,” Robert Wilson, Business Unit Director at BioMar UK, said. “We have defined distinct sustainability parameters based on our BioSustain programme to measure the sustainability of this diet and we will continue to implement improvements year-on-year to ensure sustainable development to transform aquaculture. We are looking forward to starting this sustainability journey with Loch Duart and constantly challenging each other to find new and innovative ways to improve the sustainability of the entire value chain.”

Blue Impact, BioMar’s global brand dedicated to sustainability and driving continuous change in aquaculture, is centred around aqua feeds lowering carbon emissions, utilising more circular and restorative raw materials, and minimising ingredients derived from wild fish stocks.           

The new Blue Impact feed means Loch Duart salmon can further improve its quality and sustainability through: Further Carbon footprint reduction (which is currently now below 2kg CO” eg/kg compared to the average 3.5kg CO2 eg/kg of standard farmed salmon), managing scarce resources and high Omega-3 levels.

BioMar uses applied, science-based sustainability methods to select low impact ingredients to progressively transform aquaculture. Novel ingredients with a sustainable profile will be first included in Blue Impact feeds. Blue Impact is not only a diet, but also a journey that must see continued improvements in its sustainability parameters, every year.                                                          

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Representing an expansion rate of over 400%, the impressive figures put the brand in good stead to smash its target of over 50 restaurant partners by July this year.  

Over the past six months, the brand has opened an average of one restaurant a week across London and nearby regions and is reaching new customers continuously with its authentic biryanis.  

Behrouz Biryani is widely regarded as India’s most loved biryani brand, and is a key name under Rebel Foods, which is the world’s largest internet restaurant company, and one of India’s most significant foodtech players. 

Last year marked Behrouz’s launch into the UK market, and in less than 12 months, it has taken the country’s food industry by storm, becoming the UK’s fastest-growing internet restaurant brand. Available by delivery only, Behrouz Biryani aims to bring Brits the authentic taste of India’s popular rice dish, biryani, through its network of partner restaurants that offer Behrouz dishes via Deliveroo, UberEats, JustEat or the Behrouz Biryani website.  

“We’re passionate about celebrating what is currently an underrepresented dish here in the UK, while educating people on the right way to enjoy biryanis,” Kaustubh Khare, brand country head for Behrouz Biryani UK, said. “We wanted to make premium biryanis accessible to expats craving the comfort of home and Brits who want to enjoy the authentic flavour of one of India’s most popular dishes. It’s encouraging to see how our customers have loved and enjoyed our offering in the UK over the last six months. Over the coming months, we’re looking forward to expanding our menu and reaching new customers as we enter new regions and cities across the country.” 

Behrouz’s successes lie in Rebel Foods’ ground-breaking business model, which uses commercial kitchens to build internet restaurant brands that deliver delicious meals to customers’ doorsteps. Using the Rebel Operating System, Behrouz Biryani marries culinary innovation with technology. From inventory and kitchen management to demand management and fulfilment, its full-stack technology allows for expansion and growth, while maintaining food quality.     

Here in the UK, partner restaurants can be found across major cities including London, Manchester, Birmingham and Leeds. 

“It’s not just about our fantastic food; for us Behrouz Biryani is also about supporting the UK hospitality industry, which is still, in many ways, recovering following the pandemic and the ongoing cost of living crisis,” Mr Khare added. “Our innovative franchise model allows existing restaurants to become a franchise with us, and supplement their income by working with a successful international brand partner, without having to upskill or take on new staff.  

“With Behrouz Biryani, our vision is to offer food lovers an indulgent royal biryani experience and food operators the chance to increase their profit without high risk.” 

Behrouz Biryani’s menu currently offers a variety of chicken, mutton and vegetable biryani with some of its popular dishes, including Dum Gosht Mutton biryani and Lazeez Chicken Bhuna biryani. The menu caters to multiple preferences, including halal, and offers a selection of kebabs and naans as sides.  

To find out more about Behrouz Biryani, visit https://behrouzbiryani.co.uk/.   

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DropWorks Distillery has launched its first product, a new genre of British rum, to retailers and hospitality venues.

Created in what is set to be Europe’s largest rum distillery, located within Sherwood Forest in Nottinghamshire, the new spirit is a clear, velvet smooth rum, aptly named Clear Drop Rum, and is un-aged, unadulterated and embellishment-free.

Founded by industry expert, Lewis Hayes, the brand was inspired by the iconic and eclectic style of popular British cultural movements such as Britpop, and now DropWorks is bringing a new genre of British rum (coined as Brit-rum) to the UK. Centred around diversity and quality, the new brand aims to deconstruct rum to create something new and exciting with no additional additives. 

The aim behind DropWorks, and inspiration for its name, is focused on introducing limited edition releases of rum, named ‘Drops’, using its innovative fermentation and distillation process to create different styles of rum. The idea is that, alongside its core range of products, everyone can find a rum they love. 

Clear Drop Rum is produced selecting only the highest quality cuts from a long slow distillation process. The first product Drop contains rich flavours of fresh blueberries, vanilla ice cream and banana created from DropWorks own cultivated yeast strain, Trinity Yeast, which is the world’s first three strain symbiotic yeast. 

The DropWorks Distillery creates Clear Drop Rum using three custom-made, bespoke stills including a Double Retort still which is the first of its kind in England, alongside the two different raw materials – Molasses and Organic Cane Juice Honey, which are fermented, distilled and blended on site. Additionally, Clear Drop Rum is exceptionally smooth due to the excessive copper interaction and elongated reflux afforded by their Deflagmator at the top of their eight-plate column.

Since 2020, DropWorks has received £1.8m in private funding which has been invested into the distillery, flavour development and top of the range bespoke copper equipment used in the distillation process. 

“Rum has so much more to offer the world than what it does at the moment,” Lewis Hayes, Founder and Owner of DropWorks said. “At DropWorks we are excited to launch a truly high-quality and unique rum that is accessible. We want to deconstruct rum and create something new, exciting and better with no unnecessary additives. At DropWorks we are creating the new face of rum by injecting a new lease of life into the category through added vibrancy and innovation. DropWorks is about defining a new genre of rum that is built on diversity and quality which is inspired by similar British cultural movements such as Britpop.”

The DropWorks Distillery spans a 17,000 sq ft production facility, a further 8,000 sq ft barrel store and 3 mile underground tunnel for storing the casks, allowing for a long consistent maturation and three different barrel ageing environments. The brand-new facility can now produce up to two million bottles of rum a year and up to ten barrels of rum a day. 

Brit-rum is seeing a huge growth in production, due to the temperate climate, abundant water and proximity to the polar jet stream, which forms a unique environment to distil and age rum within Britain. Rums can be slow barrel-aged, benefiting from lower average temperature and dramatic swings in atmospheric pressure, to create exciting spirits that challenge preconceptions about what rum is and when it can be consumed.

“At The DropWorks Distillery we have invested heavily in producing bespoke products which allows us to make Rum that is as light as Vodka, fruit driven as Cognac, funky as tequila, as smoky as Mezcal, as oaky as Whisky or as spiced as Gin,” Mr Hayes said. “All without the need for additional flavourings. The team have decades of experience in distilling spirits and are committed to continuously bringing new and innovative rum products to the market through new processes and ways of flavouring products.”

Each 70cl bottle of Clear Drop Rum contains 45% alcohol and will retail at £35.00. For more information on DropWorks, please visit: https://dropworks.co.uk. 

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Following the success of its first-ever out of home campaign in summer 2022 which saw double digit growth for the brand, Cawston Press unveils a new UK media campaign to promote its soft drinks range and core messaging of ‘Made with Pressed Fruit, No Jiggery Pokery’. 

On until the end of June, the new media campaign will be executed across ATL media via OOH advertising and BVOD, a new platform for Cawston Press as it aims to drive awareness of the brand’s story through AV. The ATL activity is also supported by PR and sampling. The campaign includes billboards (6-sheets, 48-sheets) across London roadside locations, as well as bus panels and London underground advertising panels. A first for the brand, billboards will also be featured across Bristol roadside locations. 

The campaign promotes Cawston Press’ full range of pressed juices and soft drinks, with its best-selling Sparkling Rhubarb SKU taking centre stage, and aims to showcase the brand’s narrative of No Jiggery Pokery. The phrase spotlights the often-misleading messaging in the soft drinks industry, highlighting how it is possible to create sparkling soft drinks from simple ingredients with no hidden sweeteners, no concentrates and no added sugar. The campaign topically follows a recent announcement from The World Health Organization (WHO) warning people against the use of non-sugar sweeteners. Instead, WHO recommended consuming food with naturally occurring sugars, such as fruit, or sticking to unsweetened food and beverages. 

The media campaign runs alongside the announcement of the brand’s first consumer activation, the ‘No Jiggery Pokery Comedy Show’in support of FareShare, the UK’s largest charity fighting hunger and food waste. Executed by Capture Communications, the comedy show will take place at London’s Clapham Grand on 8th June, offering consumers a night of stand-up comedy, poking the nonsense and ridiculousness experienced in everyday life. The campaign also coincides with a mass sampling activity, distributing half a million samples across London and Bristol. 

“We are thrilled to kick off the summer with our new campaign which can be spotted across the streets of London and Bristol,” Marketing Director Kat Jones said. “We aim to bring our tagline Made with Pressed Fruit, No Jiggery Pokery to the masses, highlighting our use of simple and clean ingredients to create great-tasting drinks. We believe that drinks don’t need to use sweeteners or shortcuts, we only use naturally occurring sugar in pressed fruit to sweeten our drinks.”

Cawston Press’ Sparkling Juice Drinks are available in five flavours: Sparkling Rhubarb, Cloudy Apple, Ginger Beer, Elderflower Lemonade and Orange. Cawston Press uses only the finest ingredients, taking inspiration from the kitchen garden and the tastes and smells of summers past. The fruits are picked at harvest time when brimming with flavour, pressed into sparkling water, and are then packed into 100% recycled cans. Available to purchase from major retailers including Waitrose, Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Morrisons, Asda, Ocado and Booths, as well as Amazon and the Cawston Press website and selected restaurants, bars, cafes and independent outlets nationwide.

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Encona, the chilli sauce range in an iconic square glass bottle, which offers a variety of different flavours and heat levels, launched its exciting new range of chilli jams earlier this year. Morrisons is now selling two of the flavours from the range – Canadian Maple and Jamaican Scotch Bonnet.

Talking about securing the listings in Morrisons, Kim Lue Lim, Global Category Manager for Encona, said: “We are proud to launch this fantastic range of Encona Chilli Jams, and we are thrilled to be working with Morrisons to get the chilli jams out to a wider foodie audience.

“This listing follows hot the heels of Tesco introducing the Canadian Maple Chilli Jam into its stores earlier this month, and we are hopeful that these listings will be the first of many.”

The Encona Chilli Jam range includes Encona Canadian Maple Chilli Jam,

Mexican Smoked Chilli Jam, Mexican Jalapeño Chilli Jam and Jamaican Scotch Bonnet.

The Encona Canadian Maple and Jamaican Scotch Bonnet Chilli Jams are priced at £2 and available now from Morrisons stores nationwide.

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