Dungannon based meat manufacturer Linden Foods picked up the top award for Best Product with their innovative M&S Pork Saltimbocca at a prestigious ceremony held in the Ramada Plaza Hotel, Belfast.

Celebrating its 13th year the NIFDA awards offer a platform to showcase and reward those involved in Northern Ireland’s world-class food and drink sector to which Linden Foods are no strangers. The leading County Tyrone red meat processor has been successful in this category before, and this year has claimed several notable accolades.

Paul Johnston, Operations Director for Linden Foods commented, “The competition in each category is always extremely fierce and each year the standard rises. We are delighted to win this award—it represents the hard work, innovation and pursuit of perfection from all the team at Linden Foods. Our people genuinely care about food innovation and their craft. This award is the result of collaborating with each other, our supply chain and our customers. We set out to add value and do it right for our customer and this has a knock-on effect into how we do our business within the local community. The feedback from the independent judges was very complimentary and our staff will be delighted and inspired.”

Elaine Willis, Head of Innovation and Business Development said, “It is a real testament to our team at Linden Foods to have won Best Product at the prestigious NIFDA Awards. We have extremely skilled staff that are constantly innovating and researching consumer trends and eating behaviours. We pride ourselves on creating high quality classical dishes with the best ingredients possible. The secret really is keeping it simple. We have a great relationship with M&S who challenge us, and we work very hard with them to create new and exciting products that customers want to buy.”