The Authentic Food Company (TAFC) received a coveted bronze award at the British Frozen Food Federation (BFFF) Annual Awards 2010.
TAFC’s exclusive Sweet Chilli Noodles for pub chain JD Wetherspoon’s was awarded Bronze within the Best New Accompaniment / Potato / Vegetable Product 2010 category in the Catering section of the Awards. The award winning dish consists of Noodles flavoured with sweet chilli sauce, garlic and shao xing making it the perfect accompaniment and carrier for any protein.
The Authentic Food Company’s Senior Development Chef, Sanjay Sighat, narrowly missed out on Development Chef of the Year at the 2010 Craft Guild of Chef Awards.
From a record number of nominations, Sanjay made the final three in the Development Chef category after impressing an expert judging panel made up of revered culinary masters.
To make the crucial cut, the Manchester based chef was scrutinised by an 18 strong panel of expert judges from across the industry after being nominated by Andrew Underwood, Commercial Director of The Authentic Food Company.
Sanjay Sighat comments; “It was such a privilege to have been selected for such a high profile award, Development chefs in the food manufacturing industry often go unrecognised yet are fundamental to innovation in the food industry. It was great to join the other chefs on the night and share experiences and knowledge.”
The AFC has been recognised for the efforts invested in the welfare of its employees and its investment in the local community. We collected our Gold Award for the Workplace Community Category Scheme at the FDF Community Partnership Awards Lunch on Tuesday 28th October.
The FDF recognised the various initiatives of the company and its employees:
- Our investment of more than £12,000 on the Wellness Scheme to ensure that all staff are in the best possible health
- The Positive Action Team
- The local runing club in Wythenshawe
- Five-a-side football team
- Tooty Fruity Tuesday
- Authentic Gives Something Back
- Newall Green High School
The Authentic Food Company has bagged The Frozen Food Savoury award in The Grocer Own Label Excellence Awards 2008. Tandoori Chicken Tikka Masala came out on top, beating off five other finalists, including Tesco and Sainsbury’s.
This award demonstrates that The Authentic Food Company is at the forefront of innovation and quality in the frozen food market.
The Tandoori Chicken Tikka Masala, sold at Iceland, was described by the panel as a dish that ‘appealed to the mainstream palate’ with ‘moist and tender chicken.’ According to the judges it is a ‘full flavoured dish’ which rates above its competitors in taste, texture and smell as well as overall impression and value for money.
The dish scored points for its ease of preparation and convenience, as well as its portion size and quality.
Nik Basran, Managing Director at The Authentic Food Company, said:
“It was a great honour for us to be presented with an award for one of our leading products. This recognition really highlights the success of our new product development strategy and strengthens our position and reputation in the marketplace.
“Our development chefs constantly strive to create innovative, high quality products that meet consumer demand. We take great pride with the heritage we have in Indian and Oriental foods so we are delighted to receive this award, in the face of strong competition from leading industry players.
The Authentic Food Company is a leading supplier of international dishes to pubs, bars, restaurants, hotels and the leisure industry across the UK.
For the third year running, our employees still feel we are one of the best companies to work for in Great Britain.
We have once again been accredited with a 1 star rating from Best Companies. This accreditation is not restricted to a number of places, only to the number of companies good enough to reach the standard. In 2006 this was only 250 organisations!
According to Best Companies, we have maintained a consistent level of excellence which is a credit to our team.
Everyone is working hard to ensure that we are all part of a caring, professional and fun-loving environment. This year, to celebrate our achievement and to further improve our workplace, we have offered even more benefits including birthdays off.
This accreditation is a focus on workplace engagement; it is an integral component of our success and growth.
Our aim is to do our utmost to make The Authentic Food Company an even better place to work!
The Authentic Food Company (TAFC) was award a Major Commendation at the 2010 prestigious Business Commitment to the Environment (BCE) award ceremony.
The food manufacturing company received this commendation for its Environmental Leadership Awards for its Continual Environmental Improvement through utility and waste reduction.
The Authentic Food Company, a family-run business based in Manchester, which cooks and chills ready meals, was rewarded for introducing a number of initiatives which have led to environmental improvements. These include a five per cent reduction in carbon output as a result of refurbishing lighting systems, a 50% reduction in outer packaging materials by increasing unit package sizes, and a saving of £7,000 by recycling cooking oils.
Plans by ready meals manufacturers The Authentic Food Company to install generators which are powered by recycled rapeseed oil have helped it win a green business award.
The oil, used to fry snacks at the Yew Street, Stockport plant, is currently collected by contractors to prevent it going to landfill and is recycled as biofuel.
Now Authentic is looking to generate energy for its factory using the oil. Its commitment to the environment earned the firm the green business accolade at the Food Northwest Awards 2010.
The family-firm, which has 230 employees and manufactures meals for pubs, restaurants, hospitals and retail has also changed its packaging to cut cardboard consumption.
Operations director Paul Harnetty, said: “Our environment and local community are very important to us and we ensure our business invests time, money and effort into making sure we are minimising our impact on the environment.”
Manchester based The Authentic Food Company (TAFC) was recognised for their continuous efforts towards helping the environment.
3663 First For Foodservice rewarded the food manufacturing company for their dedication to their internal and external environments. The Authentic Food Company had to demonstrate the positive impact their strategic environmental approach has had on their business and they were judged on their efforts in all areas such as People, Product and Environment.
The Authentic Food Company picked up a coveted Gold and Silver award at the British Frozen Food Federation Annual Awards 2008 which was held on 12th June.
The Aromatic Thai King Prawn Curry which is infused with flavours from choi sum, spring onions, red peppers and whole lime leaf, collected the Gold award in the Best New Main Course / Meal Centre Product winning the award over entries from Brakes and Silver Hill Foods. To continue the success of the evening, the Sweet Potato, Chick Pea and Spinach Curry scooped the Silver award for Best New Meat Free / Vegetarian Product.
For the past 21 years the BFFF have held these prestigious awards which have been referred to as the “Oscars of the Frozen Food Industry”. These awards are a reflection of the high quality and product development within the frozen food market.
The Craft Guild of Chefs who were the judging panel and honored The Authentic Food Company, described the Aromatic Thai King Prawn Curry as a “great authentic taste with a great prawn and vegetable content” whilst another reported “a good spicy but subtle curry which looks clean and fresh with a good portion size”. The Sweet Potato, Chick Pea and Spinach Curry which is made from chunky sweet potatoes, fried and tossed in a rich, smooth coconut-flavoured sauce also won the judges over through its “good authentic flavours” who also commented that it was “nice and spicy and different”
Double take for the Authentic Food Company!
The Authentic Food Company has scooped two awards at this year’s prestigious Caterer and Hotelkeeper Excellence
in Food and Drink Awards. Aromatic Thai King Prawn Curry received the honour in the Main Courses and Centre of Plate category, and in the shortlist for Vegetarian foods, Sweet Potato, Chick Pea and Spinach Curry won the award over entries from Tilda and Brakes.
The awards demonstrate that The Authentic Food Company is at the forefront of innovation and quality in the frozen
food market.
The Sweet Potato, Chick Pea and Spinach Curry was described as ‘bringing the Indian sector into the 21st Century’.
According to the judges it is a ‘delicious, natural and beautifully executed meal, with a superb taste and an excellent balance of spices’.
Made from chunky sweet potatoes, fried and tossed in a rich, smooth coconut-flavoured sauce, the dish can be served as a main course with naan bread or Kashmiri rice.
The judges hailed the company’s Aromatic Thai King Prawn Curry as ‘nice and spicy’, with a character that provided
‘good flavours and a good combination of vegetables and spices’. Its excellent home-made look provided the visual appeal, and the judges concluded that is would be ‘hard to make one as good’.
Both dishes scored points for their ease of preparation and convenience, as well as their visual and oral appeal.
Nik Barsan, Managing Director at The Authentic Food Company, said:
“It was a great honour for us to be presented with two awards for two of our leading products, as this is the first time we have won Caterer and Hotelkeeper awards. This recognition really highlights the success of our new product
development strategy and strengthens our position and reputation in the marketplace.
“Our development chefs constantly strive to create innovative, high quality products that meet consumer demand. We take great pride in our heritage in Indian and Oriental foods so we are delighted to receive the awards, as we faced strong competition from entries from leading industry players.
Also highlighted for recognition were the company’s Sweet Chilli Chicken Baton in the Starters and Buffet products category, and Chicken Makhani in Main Courses and Centre of Plate shortlist.
The Authentic Food Company is a leading supplier of international dishes to pubs, bars, restaurants, hotels and the leisure industry across the UK.
The Authentic Food Company, the leading supplier of international fine foods to the foodservice sector, has been awarded the Investors In People standard for the fourth time in a row in recognition of our continuing focus on the way we manage our employees.
We currently employ over 180 people, and since the last review in 2003 it has increased by around a third. Despite this phenomenal level of growth, our attention has not been diverted away from the training and development of our employees, we received particular praise from the IIP Assessors for;
The Authentic Food Company’s ‘can do’ culture wins fourth IIP award in a row
- Strong culture of mutual respect and empowerment
- Commitment to providing equality of opportunity for people to learn
- Open channels of communication.