Asda sponsors World Food Awards
Asda has announced that it is to support the World Food Awards by sponsoring the Best New Product of the Year category at the 2012 event.
This is the fourth year that the supermarket giant has supported the awards which celebrate the very best of the UK’s ethnic food products and brands.
The awards are open to companies specialising, promoting or stocking products from the following communities: Asian, Oriental, African, Afro-Caribbean, European, East-European, Middle Eastern, South American and Mediterranean.
The Asda Best New Product Award is aimed at brand new launches and recognises the outstanding success of a food or drink item/brand over the past year. The WFA said the judges will be looking for products that have captured the consumer’s imagination and achieved exceptional success in a short space of time.
Mehul Patel, head of the ethnic team at Asda said: “The World Food Awards has a very important role to play, encouraging new and existing businesses that serve this sector to continue their hard work, and we are delighted to be sponsoring the awards for the fourth year.”
Last year’s winners included the Hakkasan restaurant, philanthropic drinks brand Marley’s Mellow Moods and exotic drinks brand Rubicon.
According to latest research from Mintel, 62% of consumers now enjoy foreign food, with ethnic foods now a staple element of the population’s diet. In addition, Mintel says consumers now eat on average one ethnic meal a fortnight, with Indian and Chinese cuisine the most popular.
Patel continued: “As one of the leading High Street supermarkets we have seen the incredible growth within the World Foods sector. Ten years ago we had only one aisle filled with South Asian and Chinese food. Now, the range is so varied and expansive that not only do the products demand greater shelf space, but the consumers are demanding it too. Some of our stores have an ethnic customer profile of 70% plus. The space we give to those ranges reflects this.”
While Indian and Chinese foods still dominate the world food market, the IRI Grocery Outlets report shows that Mexican food, or Tex-Mex, is the fastest-growing cuisine in the UK, with growth of 9.8% year-on-year.
The World Food Awards will be made at a gala event at the Lancaster Hotel in London on 2 November. The judging panel will include Adam Leyland, editor of The Grocer, Simon Numphud, head of AA inspectors and Mintel’s director of innovation & insight David Jago.
