Video: Enter the 2012 Yorkshire Post Taste Awards

We want to find the finest produce in the region. Michael Hickling introduces the Yorkshire Post Taste Yorkshire Awards.

Television chef Rosemary Shrager will throw the spotlight onto the region’s best food and drink producers at the climax of our annual Yorkshire Post 2012 Taste Awards.

If you are a food or drink producer and want to be part of the competition, all you have to do is fill in a free entry form today online or in the next few weeks. Go to the entry form

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The aim of the awards in association with York Food and Drink Festival is to applaud the people who make a living growing and baking and brewing and raising on the hoof world class foodstuffs.

All the Taste Awards winners will be announced at a dinner at York Guildhall in September, hosted by Rosemary Shrager.

The awards are open to producers from anywhere in the county who sell their goods commercially.

There are seven judged categories.

Meats (Butchers meat, incl. Beef, Lamb, Poultry and Game)

Growers (Vegetables, Herbs and Fruit)

Pies (Savoury Pies incl. Butchers Pies)

Handmade (Breads and Baked goods, Muesli etc, Chocolates, )

Preserves (Jams, relishes, chutneys)

Local Drink (Beers, Ales, Ciders, Soft drinks and Wines)

Dairy (Yoghurts, Cheeses, Milk-based products, Eggs).

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There is also a Readers’ Award, which is decided separately. Shortlisted producers will be invited to make their products available to the public in the York Food Festival Market Place for the public to taste and to vote on. The product which tops this poll is announced at the awards dinner.

Deadline for entries is Tuesday, July 24. To enter online, look for the Taste Awards logo at yorkshirepost.co.uk.

Or request an entry form by post by emailing [email protected], or telephone 0113 238 8956.

The initial entries will be sorted and judged (with particular attention given to provenance and quality) and a shortlist will be drawn up.

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If you are on the shortlist you will be invited to send your product to go before the judging panel chaired by Michael Hjort, the director of the York Food Festival, in mid-August.

Product will be requested from up to 10 entries in each category.

Those selected from the shortlist as finalists – four in each category – will be published in the Yorkshire Post at the end of August. The finalists will be invited to attend the awards dinner where the winners will be announced at York Guildhall on Friday, September 28, at the climax of the York Food Festival.

For 10 days, from Friday September 21 until Sunday 30, York’s historic centre will be humming with the sound of people enjoying all that’s best in local food and drink when the theme of the York Food and Drink Festival will be Feeding the City in the Past, the Present and Future. Each day begins early with up to 100 market stalls to tempt visitors.

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York Food and Drink Festival tickets and information: 01904 466687.

The Rules

• All Taste Award entry forms must be submitted to the Yorkshire Post by noon, Tuesday, July 24.

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

• The awards are aimed at products which are commercially available at the time of entry.

• The judges’ decision will be final.

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• Product submitted must be the same standard as the product you sell.

• All entrants will be judged blind, so there should be no identifying marks on the product itself other than on the packaging, which will be removed before tasting.

• It is the responsibility of the entrant to ensure the product arrives safely and promptly, and in a fit condition for consumption by the judges. Any product that does not will be disqualified.

• No entries will be returned.

• After the Awards winners are free to publicise their success but must use the Yorkshire Post Taste Awards logo.

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• The York Food and Drink Festival runs for 10 days, from Friday, Sept 21, until Sunday, Sept 30. In keeping with this year’s theme, the celebrations will include special events to explore the history of food and drink.