Northern Ireland food champions hope for another Great Taste triumph
Hannan Meats founder has already secured multiple top honours in the world’s leading food and drink competition as Northern Ireland producers await the 2026 results
Successful food entrepreneur Peter Hannan will be focused on the results of the prestigious UK Great Taste Awards, the world’s most influential food and drink competition next week.
This year’s awards are set to be announced at the end of July by organisers the influential Guild of Fine Food in London.
Owner of the industry-leading Hannan Meats in Moira, Peter has won more Great Taste awards than many other food firms across the UK and Ireland. His successes include two Supreme Champion titles for gourmet meats and a string of ‘stars’ for other meat products.
In addition to his hugely successful meat business, Peter runs several Great Taste winning artisan enterprises including Abernethy Butter and Inspini Charcuterie, both also based in Moira, and owns CRAIC Foods in Craigavon and En Place Foods in Cookstown with business partner Paul Clarke, an experienced chef.
Peter says: “Great Taste is simply the largest and most trusted food and drink accreditation scheme, probably in the world. We’ve been very fortunate to have won a host of awards in the international competition and look forward to adding to our successes in 2026.
“The awards support and promote food and drink producers, large and small, giving buyers and food lovers in the UK and overseas reliable recommendations for great tasting food,” explains Peter. “Winning stars for our products has helped us to gain sales in Britain with retailers of the calibre of Fortnum and Mason and Harrods in London,” he adds.
He’s also used his success with Fortnum and Mason, in particular, to introduce other local food and drink producers to the store’s team of buyers.
Other artisan and smaller food and drink producers here have everything crossed for a significant business boost from Great Taste that will increase knowledge and awareness of their innovative products and lead to a growth in sales especially in Great Britain and Republic of Ireland, our two most important markets.
The UK Great Taste Awards 2026 will publicly announce the prestigious competitions 1-, 2-, and 3-star winners on July 28. The highly anticipated Golden Forks regional winners and Supreme Champion awards will follow at a special trade-only gala dinner in London on September 15, 2026. Northern Ireland’s ‘star’ producers in the past have found success in the competition leads to sales to major supermarkets and other influential retailers and hospitality businesses.
Great Taste is a competition in which local companies have achieved remarkable success over the past decade. Hundreds of local products have been recognised and many have gone on to win significant business in Britain, our single most important market for food and drink, and even further afield.
Final judging of more than 14,000 products from across the UK, Ireland and other parts of Europe for this year’s awards.
The organisers will announce the successful companies in three gold star categories – one, two and three stars - with the companies in the latter category going on to the final stage for supreme champion and regional winners. Companies achieving the coveted three stars have a product deemed by the judges as “exquisite”, two stars mean a product is “outstanding” and a one star product is “simply delicious”.
Since 1994 Great Taste has been discovering exceptional food and drink and making sure that other people know about them. More than 100,000 products have been judged by Great Taste over those years, blind tasted by expert judges, chefs, food writers and stylists who discuss the merits of each product in their search for those that deserve to be championed and garnered with the Great Taste logo.
The Great Taste logo is seen in delis and farm shops, at food festivals and farmers’ markets, butchers, bakers, and all other good food shops. It’s recognised as a mark of quality and outstanding taste. Hundreds of local products have been endorsed in the period.
Michele Shirlow, chief executive of Food NI, a Great Taste champion here, says “We always do very well in the awards, and I am confident that this year will be another record for Northern Ireland food and drink producers.
“It would be tremendous too if one of our companies could achieve the ultimate Supreme Champion award. We’ve won it three times over the past decade – twice by Peter Hannan’s Hannan Meats and once for George McCartney’s McCartney’s Butchers, both based in Moira and both won for original meat products.
McCartney’s won the top award for silverside beef, while Hannan’s awards were for Italian influenced guanciale, a pork product, and lamb.
“A couple of local companies have also earned recognition as being the most successful in the UK. These include Thompson’s Family Teas of Belfast, producer of Punjana, the local market leader and a success story in Scotland.
“Now recognised as a reliable stamp of excellence among consumers, retailers and major food buyers alike, Great Taste success can be the gateway to exciting opportunities for food and drink producers especially outside Northern Ireland,” adds Michele.