Irish Yogurts Clonakilty nominated for Great Taste Golden Fork award

Following a 3-star win in the world’s most coveted food and drink accreditation scheme, Irish Yogurts Clonakilty Half Fat Crème Fraîche is now in the running for a Great Taste Golden Fork.

CLONAKILTY-BASED yogurt producers, Irish Yogurts Clonakilty have been named among the top food and drink producers globally this year through the Great Taste 2023 accreditation scheme. The Half Fat Crème Fraîche scooped a 3-star award earlier this month, and it has now been announced that it was one of the highest scoring products, meaning Irish Yogurts Clonakilty is now in the running to win a Great Taste Golden Fork: the highest accolades in the food and drink world.

14,195 products were put through the competition’s rigorous blind judging process; and Irish Yogurts Clonakilty’s Half Fat Crème Fraîche was dubbed a “truly delicious product with a delectable flavour and mouthfeel” at the world’s most coveted food and drink awards based entirely on taste. Described as having “rich, silky smooth textures” and “citrusy and bold” flavours, this Half Fat Crème Fraîche was a big hit with the Great Taste judges. Made with farm fresh Irish milk, using a traditional ‘churn style’ recipe, the Half Fat Crème Fraîche was one of 5,904 products to receive a Great Taste award in 2023 (which is only 41.6% of the total products entered).

4,088 products were awarded a Great Taste 1-star – ‘food and drink that delivers fantastic flavour’, which Irish Yogurts Clonakilty received four 1-star awards. 1,568 were awarded a Great
Taste 2-star, which Irish Yogurts Clonakilty received one 2 -star –‘above and beyond delicious’, and 248 were awarded a Great Taste 3-star – ‘extraordinarily tasty food and drink’.

Diarmuid O’Sullivan – Managing Director of Irish Yogurts Clonakilty comments: “We are beyond delighted to have won a 3- star Great Taste award for our Half Fat Crème Fraîche, and now a Golden Fork nomination also. A lot of hard work went into growing this business from one employee to now a team of 225 people. Creating a great tasting product is paramount to what we do and the nomination for a Great Taste Golden Fork Award attests what we do as a company.”

All will be revealed in September at the Great Taste Golden Forks awards ceremony held at Battersea Arts Centre, London (industry event only).

What is Great Taste?

Recognised as a stamp of excellence and actively sought out by food lovers and retailers alike, Great Taste, organised by the Guild of Fine Food, values taste above all else. All products in the line-up for judging are blind tasted: every product is removed from its packaging so it cannot be identified, before entering a robust, layered judging process.

Organised by the Guild of Fine Food, this year’s Great Taste awards judging took place over 89 days in Dorset and London, with a panel of more than 500 judges putting the products to the test. The line-up saw food and drink products submitted from an extraordinary 109 different countries across the world.

Food & Drink Wales is the headline sponsor of Great Taste 2023. Great Taste Golden Fork trophy sponsors include: Andrew Ingredients, Bord Bia, Food & Drink Wales, Invest NI, Italian Trade Agency, Maltby & Greek, Mevalco, Partridges, Scotland Food and Drink, ShireFoods, and Speciality and Fine Food Fair. Great Taste is supported by Henderson Group, Horgans, and Peter Green Chilled.

The Irish Yogurts Clonakilty Half Fat Crème Fraîche is available in Dunnes Stores, Tesco Ireland and other stores nationwide

For more information about Irish Yogurts Clonakilty, visit www.irish-yogurts.ie.