This year our Taste Awards winners will be announced at a dinner at York Guildhall during the festival which runs at various historic venues in the city from September 19-28.

The aim of the awards, as in previous years, is to showcase Yorkshire food and to celebrate and applaud the people who make their living from it.

Yorkshire has an enviable reputation for producing outstanding foodstuffs. Our fruit and veg, our meat, cheeses, beers and pies are world-class and the people that make them are not just skilled craftsmen but ambassadors for the region.

The awards are open to food producers from anywhere within the county who sell their foods commercially. There is no entry fee.

There are six categories:

Growers

Butchers and meat

Pies

Dairy

Handmade (jams, pickles, chocolates, etc)

Local brew



The chairman of the panel of judges for the awards will be Michael Hjort, the director of the York Festival of Food and Drink. Michael is an independent chef restaurateur of Melton's and Melton's Too in York. He believes the ideas behind the festival and the ethos of the Yorkshire Post Taste Awards will ensure that the new arrangement is a perfect fit.

"York Festival of Food and Drink is a 10-day city-wide event to promote local and regional food and drink," says Michael. "Our focus is to display quality local and regional produce, in and around York's unique historic venues and alongside independent York food retailers.

"With quality wines from around the world, plus whisky and other traditional quality beverages, the festival attracts 126,000 visitors from all over the country.

"It receives international media coverage – and we also hope it educates people about food and food issues while they are having a good time."

If you would like to enter the awards, this is what to do:

Enter quickly and easily online via the Yorkshire Post website at www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/taste. Alternatively, telephone 0113 238 8956 to request an entry form by post. Your entry will state who you are, what your product is, where it is sold, why you think you should win. The deadline for entries is Monday, July 21.

The email address, if required, is michael.hickling@ypn.co.uk.

n Postal entries should be sent to Michael Hickling, Yorkshire Post, Wellington Street, Leeds, LS1 1RF, marked Taste Yorkshire.

These initial entries will be filtered down by the judges to 10 in each category. If yours is successful you will be asked to send in your product for one of the judges' tasting sessions which will take place during August.

A shortlist of finalists, three in each category, will be published towards
the end of August and winners will
be announced at the awards dinner
at the Guildhall during the festival
in September.

This will be followed by two pages of coverage in the Yorkshire Post's Country Week devoted to the winners and runners-up and their products.



If you have any queries relating to the awards, please phone 0113 238 8956 to speak to Michael Hickling.


The rules:
All Taste Award entry forms must be submitted to the Yorkshire Post
by July 21.

Entrants should be producers, not retailers, who make their goods in Yorkshire.

The products must be commercially available at the time of entry.

The judges' decision will be final.