PJ Howarth & Son Butchers in Flixton scooped the award at the National Foodex Meatex show at the NEC in Birmingham on Sunday, and the team at the shop are absolutely delighted.
 | | Jon Howard receives the platinum award |
Accroding to Jon Howarth, who took over the business 12 years ago from his father, he and his staff are "still flying. We’ve won gold awards before for our products, but this is the ultimate nut to crack. It is the most prestigious award and all butchers want it." The shop entered three sausages (the Cumberland, the Traditional Pork and the Pork with Organic Leeks) in the Sausage Evaluation contest at the show, an open competition to find the best banger in the country. All entrants must submit a pound of raw and a pound of cooked sausage, and strict guidelines about weight, size and cooking mean that it’s easy to lose points, as Jon explains. | "Ours are so special because we really care about the product we are producing and want it to be a nice experience eating the sausage" | | Jon Howarth explains why their sausages are so good |
"We’ve entered a couple of times before and done ok but we’ve let ourselves down in the past with our cooking. It sounds easy, cooking a sausage, but it’s not. You have to get it absolutely perfect. This time we did." All three of the Howarth entries received gold awards, but the judges were particularly taken by the Cumberland, awarding it the diamond award as Best in England. The team were understandably excited about that, but were absolutely blown away when, having pitted it against the best in Welsh wieners, Belfast bangers and Scottish sausages, it took the platinum award for the Best Sausage in the UK!
 | | The staff show off their produce |
Of course, as much as they’re enjoying the success, the Howarth team know the sausage business is about the customers, not awards, and they’re very happy apparently. "Our customers think our sausages are beautiful," Jon says, "we have a very large return custom with people commenting upon how little fat our sausages contain. Ours are so special because we really care about the product we are producing and want it to be a nice experience eating the sausage, one that you will want to repeat." | 
