Broadcaster and food expert, Nigel Barden, has been announced as host of the Q Guild’s annual Smithfield Awards.
Run by the Q Guild of Butchers, the awards have been running for 30 years and will take place on 7th February 2018 at a luncheon at Stationers’ Hall in London.
Barden is a food and drink broadcaster, who takes part weekly in Simon Mayo’s Radio 2 show, attracting audiences of over seven million.
He has previously worked with Chris Evans on his Sony Gold award-winning radio show and is the food correspondent for BBC London.
Barden specialises in promoting British ingredients and artisan producers, particularly in his role as chairman of judges for a number of food awards events.
Barden said: “Everything I’ve witnessed about the Q Guild of Butchers convinces me it's an outstanding institution, representing some of the finest butchers the United Kingdom has to offer.
“The welfare of the animals, whose meat they sell and the farmers who rear them are of primary concern and in turn the customers who purchase their wares. Combine these with apprentice schemes and top-flight in house training and you produce leaders in their industry.”
Barden will award each category winner with a Diamond Award and one business will take home the title of Smithfield Awards Supreme Champion.
There will be further awards for the best beef and lamb products of English, Welsh and Scottish origin and the Best Pork and Bacon products of English origin.
“It is great to have Nigel’s support. He brings a wealth of food experience which means he understands how hard our members have worked to get to this level of the awards,” said Claire Holland, general manager of the Q Guild.
The products entered into the awards were judged blind by an independent panel of international food and meat industry experts at City of Glasgow College’s facilities.
This story was originally published on a previous version of the Meat Management website and so there may be some missing images and formatting issues.