Top taste award for turkeys

Copas Traditional Turkeys has been awarded a “3 Gold Star” rating at the Great Taste Awards for its Traditional White Turkeys – one of just two companies to take the top award in the poultry category.

Organised by The Guild of Fine Food, the Great Taste Awards are a national benchmark food award, employing a rigorous “blind tasting” judging system. Only 123 products received 3 Gold Star award status from 8,807 entries.

General manager at Copas Turkeys, Ed Hurford, said: “This is a wonderful accolade to achieve and we are delighted to be in such prestigious company with the other 122 winners. Our customers know that our Traditional Turkeys are the best in market and this GTA award confirms that adhering to exacting standards in welfare and production proves its worth in the end taste.”

Copas had previously won a 2 Gold Star award in 2010, while in 2011, Kelly Turkeys won 3 Gold Stars for its Kelly Bronze.

The other top prizewinner in the poultry category in 2012 was Hopetoun Farm Shop – based at the Hopetoun stately home on the outskirts of Edinburgh – for its free-range chicken.

Scoring 2 Gold Stars were Sutton Hoo Free Range Chicken for its whole birds, Silver Hill Foods for its Pekin duck and Lidl Northern Ireland for its fresh whole Irish duckling.