After two whole days off it was quite hard to get back into judging swing this morning – but if anything was going to get us going it was ‘Breakfast’ – although I am not sure that anyone had quite counted on facing up to 25 cereals!! Flakes, loads of them as you can see, porridges, granolas, mueslis, teff grains, superfoods and variety packs!
However, game to a man (although in fact, all of today’s judges were women…), our judges worked their way through all 25, and then had a very heated discussion on the merits of nutritional excellence over palatability!
In fact, this is a subject which crops up in lots of judging sessions as our dietitian/nutrition judges are, understandably, concerned that those who are already on restricted diets and therefore at risk of nutritional insufficiency, should eat the healthiest of foods. On the other hand, food industry judges and those with allergies or coeliac disease, while wishing to eat healthily, are also anxious that the food tastes nice, especially if they have children who may otherwise refuse to eat it at all!! Of course, the trick is, to make freefrom food that is both nutritious and tastes nice – and I am glad to say that there is a great deal more of that about than there used to be.
Anyhow, here they all are, sampling away with a will!
Post cereals it was the second half of the breakfast feast – yogurts, milks and some interesting baked breakfast goods.
The afternoon saw a partial change of personnel and rather a lot of sweet biscuits and cookies – quite an ask for those judges who had already tasted all 25 cereals!
There were some interesting discoveries but, out of 18 biscuits, we were horrified to discover that our one dairy-intolerant judge could only taste two as all of the other 16 included dairy even though they were gluten free! Given that making a dairy-free sweet biscuit is really not that much of a manufacturing challenge, and that there has been, over the last couple of years, a move towards excluding more than one allergen if you are manufacturing ‘freefrom’, this was really very disappointing. I do hope we do not find the same gluten-only focus among the cakes tomorrow…
I will be interested in the outcome of the cake category because one of the reasons I didn’t volunteer for it is because it is extremely difficult to get your hands on a dairy and egg free cake unless you chose to shop with Vegan manufacturers, those labelled and targeted directly at Free From customers may eliminate dairy but I rarely see egg free, it’s why I took up baking for myself 🙂
Only three dairy free and only one egg free, Sarah – so I am glad that you didn’t come……. On the other hand we were very disappointed that he cakes had followed the biscuit trend and focused so exclusively on gluten. We hope for better next year!
I am now really cross with myself for not entering the cakes. ALL my Gluten Free cakes are also Dairy Free (unless they have a cream cheese frosting – but can be purchased with an alternative filling). I wanted to enter so many other products but the cost of entry was prohibitive to me. I really wish there were a way to assess entrants in a fair way. I am starting from nothing here, I have no backing or pots of money, so each week everything I make goes into making the tiny little enterprise grow. One day … one day 🙂
Dear Scarlet Rosita – So sorry – but I am afraid that awards are incredibly labour intensive and therefore expensive to run (my next blog will be about all the work that goes on behind the scenes) so we cannot set the entry fee any lower. But I do understand that even at the discounted ‘small business’ rate of £90 per entry it is hard for a small business.
But hang in there as I am sure that the judges will have noticed that your products are gluten and dairy free. Especially as they were so cross about how few were!
Anyhow, the shortlist will be out on Wednesday so fingers crossed that some of your products get shortlisted.
Hi Michelle, Of course I totally understand and the work is an enormous undertaking and I am very grateful that you exist, offer a discounted rate and have been so very welcoming of me. I’m afraid I was just venting a little. At school I should have trained to go into banking so I could then go and buy myself a little cafe … sadly I trained as a chef instead. I very much look forward to the shortlist. 🙂 Thanks again … sorry for the whinge 🙂
Some of my recipes are here
http://scarletrosita.wordpress.com/
That’s me 🙂
That’s quite alright!! I do know how it feels…. We did originally start by manufacturing ‘freefrom’ products a hundred years ago before ‘freefrom’ had even been invented – so i have seen it from both ends! And now I have HUGE respect for those of you who are actually at the sharp end making products – especially delicious products! I remember us trying yours and reviewing them last summer!