Gold award a healthy boost for novel vegan snack from Armagh

Forest Feast, a family-owned and run business outside the Co Armagh town, gained the top award in the prestigious Nourish Vegan Awards in Britain.

The Northern Ireland company gained the award for its Nutmilk Choco Corn snack, part of a quartet of vegan, dairy-free chocolate treats launched earlier in the year by the leading fruit and nut snacking brand.

The snack manufacturer, owned and run by Michael Hall, is now the leading producer of healthy snacks in NI and a major player in Britain and the RoI. It has, furthermore, gained a host of accolades including influential UK Great Taste Awards for its range of snacks which also include dried fruits and nuts.

The Nourish competition aims “to find and reward food or beverage products that provide a nutritious plant based alternative with no compromise on taste and texture”.

The Nourish Vegan awards are described as “a prestigious award programme for the food and beverage industry in the UK”. The vegan category was launched for the first time in 2023 as a stand-alone section in the highly acclaimed Nourish Awards with 12 plant based categories.

The Nourish Awards have been running since 2018 and are widely recognised in the industry for “their robust judging process and criteria for businesses of all sizes”.

Other local companies, in particular Belfast-based That Protein breakfast cereals and high-protein powders, have been successful in the main awards in the past.

The awards specify that products should “provide a healthy alternative with less sugar, less processing, good nutrition and ingredients.” They also recognise “wholesome and nutritious plant based food and beverage products that will appeal to a wider market”.

Bronagh Clarke, Forest Feast’s marketing director, said: “This is a tremendous endorsement in such an important event for range of vegan foods which are now attracting significant interest and business in Britain, one of our biggest markets.”

“We are continually pushing the boundaries on innovation and driving new consumers to our brand and to the category. We wanted to create chocolate snacks for anyone cutting out or cutting down on dairy, but found that a lot of the products on the market were closer to dark chocolate than the more mainstream milky offering.

“With our decades of fruit, nut and snacking know-how, we spent a lot of time perfecting the recipe to create a legendary-tasting nut milk chocolate that is as good as the real thing, but better for you, too.”

The snacks comprise: chocolate peanuts; chocolate raisins; chocolate corn, the Nourish Vegan gold award winner; and chocolate mix, a tasty mixture of chocolate-coated peanuts, raisins and corn.

Launched in January, the Nutmilk snacks, which meet stricter UK Government rules on fat, salt and sugar in foods, are coated in Forest Feast’s in-house vegan chocolate, that’s made using almond milk in place of dairy.

Forest Feast is the primary brand of Kestrel Foods, the business formed in 1996 by Michael Hall. The company also produces the award-winning Acti-Snack range of energy fruit and nut products, introduced in 2016.

Over the last 27 years, Kestrel Foods has seen impressive and consistent annual sales growth, continuously adapting to changing markets, and pioneering new products, processes, and technology.

The company now employs around 80 people at Carn Business Park, Portadown.

The company has a strong commitment to ethical trading and sustainable sourcing, dedicating to working with smallholder farms and organisations like Preda Fairtrade in the Philippines. This ensures fair prices, sustainable environmental practices, local education and empowers indigenous farmers through the sales of dried fruit and nuts.

Michael is a strong advocate of giving back to the community and over the years has supported numerous charities and sporting organisations. He invests in Future Talent through the Kestrel Careers Programme as well as coaching new business start-ups and sponsoring the Ulster Grocer ‘Young Marketer of the Year’ award.

The progressive and successful company has invested substantially in high-tech production systems and has a deeply rooted commitment to new ideas in the healthy snacking category, among the most dynamic UK food sectors.

Among the most recent innovations is a world first ‘Double Dipped Peanut Butter and Milk Chocolate Dates’, joining the range of fruit snacks produced in-house by the industry leader. Other products in the novel range include sour cherries in dark chocolate and dark chocolate figs.