In order to be eligible for an award, your product must be on sale by 6 September 2023 within the island of Ireland, for consumers to buy either in-store or online. Please note, if you are entering into our Christmas categories, your product must be on sale for the 2023 festive season.

Products can be entered by producers, suppliers, manufacturers, retailer or wholesaler.

When selecting your product, consider the key judging criteria; taste, flavour; texture; aroma; ingredients list; provenance, product appearance, packaging, price point/value for money and innovation/aims in the marketplace. It doesn't have to be a new product – just a really good one.

Costs for entering are €335 + VAT per entry. Small Producers (fewer than 10 staff and annual sales under €1 million) can enter with a reduce fee of €125 + VAT. To find out more, please view our Small Producer page here. All entries must be paid for before judging commences in June.

When you’ve identified which product(s) you would like to enter, you now need to consider the best suited awards category.

A full list of categories and their descriptions can be viewed on the enter now page. In order to aid navigation, categories are displayed in alphabetical order.

Where products have a range of variety, (for example cheese) these have been grouped and then further sub categorized. Upon selecting the group, you can view the further sub categories that can be entered.

If you would like any further assistance with selecting your category, please click here to contact one of our team who will be happy to help.

• Product information
  Name, Launch Date, Price, Weight. Always tell us the price: value for money is an important part of the debate.
  
  
• Subcategory
  You will be asked to select a sub-category in which you believe your product falls under; this is for guidance only, and your product may not be judged in the sub-category if another category is deemed more suitable.
  
  
• Who is it manufactured for?
  If it’s created for a retailer, include the retailer name at the start of the product name


• List of ingredients
  Include the full list of ingredients
  
  
• Cooking instructions
  Make sure these are clear and detailed as this is how your product will be prepared at judging. If your product needs other ingredients added such as baking kits, please make sure this is clearly stated in the submission.
  
  
• Details of Irish/Northern Irish listings
  Both instore and online.
  
  
• 100-word product description
  This description will be read out to the judges when they receive your product for tasting so please take the time to tell us why your product deserves to win. Judges appreciate being told the "story" behind a product - especially if it has a strong message to communicate.
  
  
• Upload a photo of the product, and packaging
  Please also include your company logo - a high res image (preferably in PNG format) helps our judges to understand how consumers view your product in store.

Following the submission of your entry, you will receive an email in May with delivery instructions for your tasting samples. Judging will take place over June and July and all entries must supply product samples to take part in the programme. You can find out more on our judging process here.

Make sure you follow each detail of the delivery guidelines supplied. These instructions will contain the relevant delivery date for your category, number of items to send and full delivery address for the judging venue.

The products will be presented to the judges in the same way they are provided to customers, who take more than taste into account when they make their purchases.

Please ensure you provide the recommended number of products in their packaging in your delivery, so judges can view the product as a whole. When product packaging is not available, e.g. for a seasonal product, please ensure you include a product shot with visuals of how the packaging will look.

Following judging, all entrants will be contacted regarding their success in the programme. If your product is listed as a finalist, you will be sent your promotional finalist logo. Results will be announced at our live event in September.

All entrants will receive detailed feedback from our panel following the awards ceremony in September.