About The BBC Food And Farming Awards

UPDATE - The winners in this year's BBC Food and Farming Awards have been announced at the BBC Good Food Show at Birmingham's NEC on 28 November 2012.

See the full list of winners and listen to the 2012 BBC Food and Farming Awards

For more details on each finalist see the Food and Farming Awards category pages.

Narrowing the shortlist & selecting the finalists and winners

Our twelve judges in the Food and Farming Awards 2012, including Angela Hartnett, Valentine Warner, Charles Campion and Victoria Moore met recently to debate, taste and drink their way through thousands of nominations and decided on this year’s finalists and winners.

BBC listeners, viewers and online users had sent in nominations from all over the UK, covering nine different food categories, from Best Food Producer to Best Food Market and from Best Dinner Lady to Best Takeaway. The judging team spent weeks, reading, researching, exchanging ideas and opinion as to who should make it to the eventual line-up of 28 finalists.

It’s been close. The stories they’ve been sent, in every category have been inspirational, from visionary farmers in Northern Ireland, to pioneering retail food shops in north Wales, from a workers’ co-operative baking bread to supermarkets trying to rethink supply chains to source ingredients more sustainably.

Ahead of revealing this year’s finalists the judges wanted to publish shortlists featuring all of the nominees they took to the final stage of their decision making, nominees who had really impressed.

For winner and finalist details and those who also made it to the shortlist visit the Food and Farming Awards category pages.

How do people get nominated for a BBC Food and Farming Award?

We depend on BBC audiences to bring the finalists and those eventual winners to our attention. Thousands of listeners to The Food Programme, Farming Today, You and Yours and Local Radio, together with viewers of programmes like Countryfile and Masterchef have in past years realised they have a food gem within their community and told us about it by filling in a nomination form on our website. 

Farmers, cooks, market traders, food and drink producers and retailers are all in the game, but we're also looking for the people who help us change the way we think about food: writers, campaigners, bloggers and broadcasters.

The winners in 2011

Our hall of fame is impressive: last year you told us about the Loch Arthur Creamery in South West Scotland, making what 2011’s Chair of Judges Richard Corrigan described as some of Britain's finest cheeses. The creamery is staffed by people living in the Loch Arthur Camphill community: 70 people, many with learning disabilities, who know how to produce prize-winning, unpasteurised cheeses from the milk of their own herds--and how to make their business pay. They won the Best Producer award and demonstrated that great cheese also doesn't have to be expensive.

You also told us about Jack and Linda Mills on Brighton Beach serving the best hot fish sandwiches with fish sourced from local day boats. Mr & Mrs Mills won our Best Takeaway / Streetfood prize.

Then there was Bolton Market in Lancashire, the best in Britain last year thought our judges, with incredible displays of fresh fish, meat and veg. Inexpensive great food that seriously rivals anything a major supermarket can provide.

The winner of the Best Local Food Retailer was Brockweir and Hewelsfield village shop in Chepstow, full of local produce, staffed by volunteers and a model for what communities can create when their old shops close down.

More details of the winners in 2011 and listen to the Awards