2026 Ireland Quality Food & Drink Awards
All Year Round category winners

Shelf-stable products primarily intended for breakfast consumption. Includes cereals, granola, muesli, porridge oats, instant breakfast pots, breakfast bars, ambient pancakes and similar items.

Fresh or frozen (intended for at home heating) baked goods designed specifically for breakfast. Includes croissants, pastries, muffins, breakfast rolls, pancakes, waffles and similar items, suitable for retail consumer breakfast occasions.

Raw or cooked burgers and meatballs made from beef, pork, poultry or mixed meats. Includes seasoned, flavoured or filled products but excludes plant-based alternatives. Includes kebabs and kofta.

Chocolate bars, boxed chocolates, sharing bags, sweets, candies, toffees, fudge, truffles and confectionery products such as sweets, nougat and marshmallows. Includes everyday items but excludes baked goods.

Sauces intended for cooking or meal preparation such as pasta sauces, curry sauces, stir-fry sauces and simmer sauces. Includes wet or dry rubs, pastes and marinades, jar or sachet sauces. Excludes condiments (see alternative category).

Chilled, frozen or ambient desserts including mousses, cheesecakes, trifles, puddings and similar sweet dessert products.

Meat products derived from game animals such as venison, rabbit, pheasant, duck or wild boar.

Beef fillet steaks cut from the tenderloin. Products may be fresh or frozen, plain or lightly prepared, and intended for retail use.

Convenient ready-to-eat or heat-and-eat products designed for immediate consumption, including sandwiches, salads, wraps, sushi and snack pots.

Subcategories:

• Sushi
• Sandwiches & Wraps
• Salads
• Hot & Heat to Eat

Any ambient, chilled, frozen, and bakery products specifically formulated to be gluten-free and suitable for consumers with coeliac disease or gluten intolerance.

Firm and hard cow’s milk cheese varieties including cheddar-style, alpine-style and aged cheeses.

Subcategories:

• Irish e.g. cheddar, Cashel blue
• Continental e.g. gruyere, manchego

Fruit and vegetable juices and smoothies, chilled or ambient.

Sliced or unsliced bread loaves including white, brown, seeded and speciality breads, sourdough, flavoured, pre-sliced or unsliced, from the bakery counter or on shelf. For wheaten and soda, see ‘wheaten and soda’.

Cured, cooked or air-dried sliced meats including ham, parma ham salami, chorizo and similar products.

Fresh or ambient dairy milk including whole, low-fat, flavoured or speciality milks. Excludes kefir.

Fresh or frozen pizzas including topped, stuffed or flatbread-style pizzas.

Raw or prepared poultry products including chicken, turkey, duck, goose and other poultry meats. Includes plain, seasoned, marinated or with an accompanying sauce, including roast in the bag.

Sweet or savoury relishes and chutneys including savoury jam, savoury marmalades, pickled chutney, onion marmalade.

Raw or cooked sausages made from meat or mixed proteins, excluding plant-based alternatives.

Fish products preserved by smoking, including smoked salmon, trout, mackerel and similar items.

Any cow’s milk cheese which is soft in texture, i.e. spreading cheeses, brie, camembert and soft cheeses

Subcategories:

• Irish e.g. Tipperary brie
• Continental e.g. mozzarella, camembert

Any cheese made from any animal other than a cow, including buffalo, sheep and goats’ cheese, feta, halloumi etc.

Striploin beef steaks, including New York strip-style cuts. Products may be fresh or frozen and minimally prepared.

Traditional wheaten and soda breads including white and brown soda varieties.

All bacon products including rashers, streaky bacon, back bacon, smoked or unsmoked, dry- or wet-cured. Products may be raw or ready-to-cook and intended for retail sale.

Raw or minimally prepared beef products excluding steaks, burgers and meatballs. Includes roasting joints, mince, diced beef, stewing cuts and slow-cook products where beef is the primary ingredient.

Carbonated soft drinks including colas, lemonades and flavoured fizzy drinks.

Table sauces and condiments including ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise, BBQ sauce, hot sauce, mint sauce, cranberry jelly, balsamic glaze. Excludes oils, vinegars, dressings and cooking sauces (see alternative categories).

Potato crisps and similar sliced, fried or baked snack products. Includes flavoured and speciality crisp products.

Savoury dips such as hummus, salsa, guacamole, cheese dips and chilled or ambient dipping products.

Fresh shell eggs and egg products sold as whole eggs. Excludes processed or liquid egg products.

Flatbreads and soft breads including pittas, wraps, tortillas, bagels, baps, naan and filled or unfilled rolls.

Any ambient, chilled, frozen, and bakery products formulated to exclude specific allergens such as dairy, nuts or eggs, clearly labelled and positioned as allergen-free.

Fresh, prepared or packaged fruit products including whole fruit, cut fruit and fruit snack packs.

Natural honey products including single-origin, blended or flavoured honey. Includes hot honey.

Frozen desserts including ice cream, gelato, sorbet, frozen yoghurt and ice lollies. Includes tubs, handhelds and pots.

Raw or minimally prepared lamb products including joints, chops, mince and diced lamb.

Any prepared or unprepared accompaniments to a meal e.g. boxty, stuffing, bacon and cabbage, gratins, chips, whether ambient, chilled or frozen.

Traditional meat puddings including black pudding, white pudding and regional varieties.

Pasta, rice, grains or noodles, can be fresh, dried or frozen, with or without filling; rice; grains and pulses of any variety or flavour includes couscous, pearl barley.

Raw or minimally prepared pork products excluding bacon, sausages and sliced meats. Includes gammon.

Sweet preserves including jams, marmalades and fruit conserves.

Ribeye beef steaks, bone-in or boneless. Products may be fresh or frozen and lightly prepared.

Sirloin beef steaks, including bone-in or boneless cuts. Products should be clearly identified as sirloin and suitable for retail.

Sweet and savoury snack products including popcorn, pretzels, nuts and extruded snacks, bars, bites and confectionery-style snacks. Excludes chocolate and confectionery.

Chilled, ambient or frozen soups including fresh, canned and concentrated varieties

Shelf-stable everyday food products not covered elsewhere, including baking ingredients, mixes, cooking ingredients like stock, herbs and spices and passata.

Fresh, frozen or prepared vegetable products including whole, cut or seasoned vegetables, vegetable roasting trays, stir fry kits, frozen broccoli.

Subcategories:

• Prepared Vegetables
• Whole Vegetable

Chilled dairy or dairy-alternative yogurt products including natural, flavoured and Greek-style. Excludes kefir.