How to enter the Great Taste Awards and use a result with buyers
To enter the Great Taste Awards, go to the Guild of Fine Food's website, check this year's entry dates, costs and rules, choose the products you want judged, and follow the entry steps there before the deadline. Judges blind-taste each product and can award 1, 2 or 3 stars. This guide explains what the awards are, how to decide which products to enter, whether entering is worth it for your brand, and how to use a result with shop buyers on your trade sheet, in pitch emails and on shelf talkers.
1. What are the Great Taste Awards?
The Great Taste Awards are food and drink awards run by the Guild of Fine Food. Producers enter products, and judges blind-taste them, which means they taste each product without knowing whose it is. A product can be awarded 1, 2 or 3 stars.
Because the judging is blind, a small maker's product is judged on taste, without the judges knowing which brand made it.
The details change from year to year, including entry dates and costs. Always check the Guild of Fine Food's website for the current year's rules before you plan anything.
2. How to enter the Great Taste Awards
A Great Taste Awards entry takes some planning, because you need the right product, made the right way, ready by the deadline. Use this checklist.
Great Taste entry checklist
1. Read the current rules. On the Guild of Fine Food's website, note the entry window, the cost per product, how and when products must be sent, and the rules on using the award logo.
2. Put the dates in your calendar. The entry deadline, the date products must arrive, and when results are announced.
3. Choose your products. See section 3. Decide on one to three products rather than your whole range.
4. Set a budget. Entry costs per product, the product you'll send, postage, and logo stickers or artwork if you win.
5. Plan a batch. Make the product you send from a normal production batch, exactly as a customer would buy it.
6. Enter and send. Follow the entry steps on the Guild's website, and keep a copy of everything you submit.
7. Plan for the result. Decide now how you'll tell buyers and stockists, so you're ready when results come out (see section 5).
Write down the batch, recipe and date of the product you send. If it wins, you'll want to be sure every jar you sell afterwards matches the one the judges tasted.
3. Which products to enter
Choose products where a star would help you sell to buyers, and where you're confident the judges will taste your best work. Ask these questions about each product:
- Is it a product you want shops to stock? A star on your best seller or your lead product helps every pitch. A star on a one-off seasonal flavour helps for a few weeks.
- Is taste the main reason people buy it? The judges are tasting, so enter products that win people over when they try them, such as a chutney you always sell out of after tastings.
- Is every batch the same? If the recipe or ingredients vary, the product you send may not match what customers buy later. Enter products with a settled recipe.
- Will you still make it next year? A product you're about to change or drop is a poor use of an entry.
- Does it fill a gap for buyers? If buyers already say your chilli jam suits their cheese counter, a star on that jam gives them one more reason to say yes.
Example: Wildfire Chilli Co, Bristol (fictional)
Wildfire makes five chilli sauces and a chilli jam. Sam enters two products:
Smoked Chilli Jam: the product delis ask about most, with a settled recipe, made all year.
Smoked Habanero sauce: the best seller at markets and in farm shops.
Sam leaves out the Christmas Cranberry & Chilli sauce, which only sells for six weeks, and a new lime sauce whose recipe is still changing.
4. Is Great Taste worth it?
It depends on what you'll do with a result. A star helps only if buyers and customers see it, so the value comes from how you use it. Weigh it up with these questions before you enter:
| Question | Points towards entering | Points towards waiting |
|---|---|---|
| Are you pitching to shops this year? | Yes, you're approaching delis and farm shops and need proof that buyers recognise | No, you're mostly selling direct and aren't approaching shops yet |
| Is your recipe settled? | Yes, the product will be the same next year | No, you're still changing it |
| Can you cover the cost? | Entry, product, postage and stickers fit your budget | The money is needed for packaging or stock |
| Do you have other proof? | Not yet: no stockists, few reviews | You already have strong stockists and reorders to point to |
| Will you use a result? | You'll update your trade sheet, email every buyer and add shelf talkers | You'd add it to your website and leave it there |
Check the current entry costs on the Guild of Fine Food's website and add them to the other costs above. If most of your answers point towards entering, enter one or two products this year and see how buyers respond.
5. How to use a Great Taste result with buyers
Put your result everywhere a buyer or customer will see it, and follow the Guild of Fine Food's rules on how award winners may use the logo and wording.
On your trade sheet
Add the result next to the product that won, with the number of stars and the year. Name the exact product: "Smoked Chilli Jam, Great Taste 2 stars 2026". Don't let a star on one product look as if it covers your whole range. Our guide to building a wholesale price list and trade sheet shows where proof points sit on the page.
In pitch emails
Use the award as your one proof point, after the line about why you chose that shop. One award is enough; a list reads like a brochure.
Subject: Great Taste chilli jam for your cheese counter
Hi Anna,
I saw your new cheese counter at Pell & Rowe on Instagram, and noticed there's no chilli jam alongside it.
Our Smoked Chilli Jam was awarded two Great Taste stars this year. We make it in Bristol to go with hard cheese, and it's £3.90 a jar trade, £6.00 RRP, in cases of six.
Could I post you a jar to try with the cheddar? Prices and terms are on our trade sheet: [link]
Thanks,
Sam Ellis
Wildfire Chilli Co, Bristol · 07700 900123
If you'd rather I didn't email again, reply and say so and I won't.
The shop and buyer are fictional. Our guide to writing pitch emails to shop buyers covers subject lines and follow-ups.
To your existing stockists
Email every shop that already stocks you when results come out. It gives them a reason to reorder, to move your product somewhere more visible, or to add the winning product if they don't stock it yet. Offer stickers or a shelf talker for their shelf.
On shelf talkers
A shelf talker is a small card beside your product that tells customers something the label can't. Ask the shop first, and keep it to three things: who made it, the award, and one reason to try it.
Shelf talker template
Great Taste 2 stars 2026
Smoked Chilli Jam, made in Bristol by Wildfire Chilli Co.
Try it with a strong cheddar or on a cheese toastie.
Everywhere else
- Your website product page and your stockist page.
- Your social posts, tagging the shops that stock the winning product.
- Your email list, telling customers where they can buy it.
- Your local press. An award is a story for local papers and food writers. For more on this, see our guide on how to market a food product.
If a product doesn't receive a star, nothing changes for your existing stockists. Carry on selling it, and decide next year whether to enter it again or try a different product.
Questions about the Great Taste Awards
How do I enter the Great Taste Awards?
Go to the Guild of Fine Food's website, check the current year's entry dates, costs and rules, and follow the entry steps there before the deadline. Send products made exactly as you sell them.
What are the Great Taste Awards?
The Great Taste Awards are food and drink awards run by the Guild of Fine Food. Judges blind-taste the products entered and can award 1, 2 or 3 stars.
Is Great Taste worth it for a small food brand?
It can be if you will use a result: on your trade sheet, in pitch emails to shops, with your stockists and on shelf talkers. Weigh the current entry costs, from the Guild of Fine Food's website, against how you plan to use it.
How much does it cost to enter Great Taste?
Entry costs change each year, so check the Guild of Fine Food's website for the current cost per product. Budget too for the product you send, postage and any logo stickers if you win.
How many stars can you get at Great Taste?
A product can be awarded 1, 2 or 3 stars by the Great Taste judges.
How should I show a Great Taste award on my products?
Name the exact product that won, with the stars and the year, and follow the Guild of Fine Food's rules on using the logo and wording.
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