As I was looking for something else just now I came across an old blog discussing whether or not we should recreate the ‘tasting tables’ (on which the first FreeFrom Food Awards were based) that we used to run in the Foods Matter magazine reviewing the freefrom products on the market.
The idea had been to give consumers a bird’s eye view of what was available to buy, what it was free of, what it actually contained, what it cost, where you could buy it – and , most important, what it tasted like. The tables were very popular with readers but, as the number of freefrom foods grew, they became increasingly burdensome to put together. So we were very tempted this year to ‘move on’.
However, an outcry from various readers and long term supporters halted us in our tracks and, with a bit of ingenuity, we have managed to find a slightly less arduous way of putting the tables together.
Not that they will be as comprehensive as they were when you could count the number of free from breads, pastas, cakes or sausages on the fingers of one, or at the best, two hands. Because of the growth in sector, for this year’s FreeFrom Food Awards we introduced an entry fee into order to reduce the number of products entered. (Last year we tasted no less than 157 sweet biscuits and there was a major rebellion by freefrom judges who were simply not prepared to subject either their taste buds or their stomachs to that kind of abuse…)
As a result, categories this year normally comprised of between 20 and 30 products but, we hope and believe, that those were the manufacuturers’ best products so we will be reporting on the best products on the market.
The reports will go up on the FreeFrom Food Awards website on April 7th, the day after the announcement of the winners. So, tasting-table-enthusiasts, log in at some point on April 7th and follow the links to this year’s tasting tables. We hope that you will enjoy them and find them a useful shopping aid.