Blas na hÉireann, the Irish Food Awards, returns to Dingle in 2022 with entries open this St. Patrick’s Day
Key dates for 2022
Finalist Stage…
Judging is now complete
Our summer judging has now taken place. Once again we have had a busy summer with judging running since 14th June. The Blas na hÉireann 2022 results will be based on our summer judging sessions and will be announced as follows;
We have now been in touch with all entrants with an update on each entries progress. As always, every producer who has taken part will receive an update on their entry.
What is the finalist stage
Finalists are the top 5 entries in a category (generally there are just 5 finalists although in some cases if scoring is extremely close there can be more).
The finalist stage has always been a very tough stage to reach, and producers have had success from promoting that they have reached this stage, putting them front and centre in the eyes of trade and press who are watching the finalist results . As such, when we made the change in 2020 to a single tasting we felt it was important to still celebrate our finalists. We will also be publishing a finalist guide which will be shared with buyers and press directly in advance of the awards.
The tasting for this year has been completed, we will be announcing Gold, Silver & Bronze winners during our awards and in the lead up to the awards all finalists can promote their achievements of reaching this stage. The awards will be announced on Friday 30th September, key dates for the Dingle events below
Key dates for Dingle
Thursday 29th September
Blas, a taste of 2022 – Showcase open for private preview to buyers
Producers registration & backyard open
Friday 30th September
Awards announced throughout the day – check timings here
Showcase open to producers, buyers, press as a networking venue throughout the day
Blas Backyard – conversations & panels throughout the day
Saturday 1st October
- Showcase open to producers, buyers, press as a networking venue throughout the day
- Blas Backyard – conversations & panels throughout the day
Blas returns to Dingle….
All roads will certainly lead to Dingle in the autumn as the awards weekend returns to the pretty seaside town for their first in-person event in two years. Regarded by many as a key event in the Irish food industry’s calendar Blas na hÉireann, like so many others, celebrated their finalists and winners online for the past two years leaving a significant gap in the food and drink calendar. 2022 will see the welcome return of this important weekend of celebrations, and the great and good of the Irish food and drinks scene will descend on Dingle once more.
“We’re absolutely delighted to be planning our awards in Dingle this year,” says Blas na hÉireann Chairman, Artie Clifford. “We were lucky to have been able to move quickly in 2020 and while we were in a position to run our judging throughout the summer months in the last two years, we weren’t able to welcome everyone together for the networking and awards. We are proud of the celebrations that we hosted online, and the awards were a huge success, managing to highlight the best of Irish food and drink during a really difficult time. The one thing that was said over and over to us though was that people missed being in Dingle, so we can’t wait to welcome our Blas family home this year and celebrate our 2022 finalists in person.”
This year is the 15th year of Blas na hÉireann seeing a huge increase in entries and many new producers entering the awards for the first time. The blind-tasting judging system which was designed by The School of Food and Nutritional Science at U.C.C. under the supervision of Prof. Joe Kerry and the team at Blas is now recognised as an industry gold standard worldwide.
Winners are always the best Blas ambassadors, something to which 15 years-worth of small producers, farmers, growers, bakers and artisan food makers who have won a Blas award and proudly put the winner’s sticker on their product can attest. Research has shown that the Blas accreditation has the highest recognition among Irish consumers and having the award logo on products encourages shoppers to buy – it is a recognised guarantee of a top-quality Irish product.
Please get in touch with us if you have questions, you can reach Fallon or Artie by email on info@irishfoodawards.com