Sainsbury's and Waitrose top Quality Food & Drink awards

Sainsbury's and Waitrose cleaned up at the 2005 Quality Food & Drink Awards, presented by comedian Dominic Holland at The London Marriott Hotel, Grosvenor Square.

Sainsbury's scooped nine of the coveted Silver Q Awards and the top accolade, the Gold Q, for its Living Salad. Waitrose walked away with eight Silver Qs in categories including Delicatessen, Desserts & Puddings, Sandwiches and Ready Meals.

Marks & Spencer took four awards and Somerfield won the Hot Beverages category for its Red Berries Selection Teabag Variety Pack.

A packed audience also saw five brands pick up Silver Qs with smoothies company Innocent winning the Soft Drinks category for the third year in a row. The Junior Q, an award for the best product aimed at children, went to Nestlé for its Smarties Mini Cakes.

The award winners were selected from over 500 entries of own-label and branded food and drink products.

Judges included Pat Chapman, founder of The Curry Club; Steven Poole, director of The Food Bureau; Simon Wright, founder of The Organic Consultancy and Harry Burnham, chief representative of Awards' sponsor, the Private Label Manufacturers Association.

The Quality Food & Drink Awards, organised by Checkout and Independent Retail News, were launched in 1979 as a way of rewarding, and encouraging, the development of high quality food and drink products in UK grocery.

Introducing the 26th Awards, Checkout deputy editor Dominic Weaver, announced the launch of a separate Quality Drink Awards, which will be presented for the first time in summer 2006. The Quality Food Awards will continue to be presented towards the end of the year.

Source Checkout Magazine