Great Taste is widely recognised as the gold standard for food and drink accreditation and entries are open again for 2026. We caught up with Associate Managing Director Christabel Cairns from the Guild of Fine Food to find out what makes Great Taste unique, how the judging works, and why winning a Great Taste star can make a real difference to producers of all sizes.
1. What is Great Taste?
Great Taste, organised by the Guild of Fine Food, is a food and drink accreditation, widely recognised as the most influential and well-respected scheme of its kind in the world, due to its rigorous blind-tasting process and the feedback provided to all entrants. It celebrates independent food and drink producers from across the globe and last year saw 14,340 entries from over 100 different countries take part.
2. Why should a food or drink producer enter Great Taste?
All entrants, regardless of whether they achieve an award, receive written feedback, which can be incredibly useful for your team and future product development. For the recipients, Great Taste is one of the most recognisable indicators of quality, and products with Great Taste awards stand out amongst their competitors on the shelves of delis and supermarkets alike. Buyers for some of the most prestigious retailers, such as Selfridges, as well as independent specialist shops, select what to stock using Great Taste as a guide. In a recent survey, it was found that 58% of all UK adults recognise Great Taste, with 92% of consumers associating the awards with quality, 73% considering the accreditation to be trustworthy and 86% expecting a product with a Great Taste star to be delicious. In addition nearly 50% use Great Taste as a point of reference for discovering new products, meaning a star really can help you gain new customers.
3. What makes Great Taste different from other awards?
Apart from being the world’s most well-established accreditation scheme, having run for nearly 40 years, Great Taste is unique in its format. Each product is judged on its own merit, individually and not against others of a similar type. Uniquely, all entries are also given written feedback from a number of judging teams, providing incredibly cost-effective market research from professional industry tasters.
The Great Taste judging panel is what really makes Great Taste special. It is made up of around 500 industry experts, including chefs, food critics, producers, retailers, recipe creators and other specialists in the field of food and drink. Judges selected to ensure a diverse mix of specialism, age and gender, as well as ethnicity and background, to provide as broad a range of palates as possible. There are also dedicated judging days for particular specialisms, such as spirits, coffee and tea, chilli products and plant-based.
4. How does the judging process work?
The process is very democratic. Each product is stripped of any identifying features, including packaging and branding and is served to small teams of judges. They will taste it, analysing flavour as well as mouth feel, aroma and appearance and decide whether or not they collectively think it is worthy of a Great Taste 1-star, 2-star or 3-star, or no award. The product will then move between the judging teams until a consensus is reached. Higher scoring products, for example a product that is on track to be awarded a 2-star or 3-star, will be tasted by more judging teams for consistency, exposing the entrant to a wide range of palates.
5. What benefits can a producer get from winning a Great Taste star?
Being awarded a Great Taste star of any level encourages confidence and anecdotally increases commercial success for small businesses. The award can help to generate greater awareness of products locally, regionally, nationally and internationally. Not only does it increase awareness amongst buyers, but awarded products are also promoted through the Guild’s various activities, including a listing on our online directory (www.gff.co.uk/gt-directory)
Even if a product does not achieve an accreditation, detailed constructive feedback from the judges will be provided for the producers to help identify where there might be room for improvement.
6. How can Great Taste help a brand stand out to retailers and buyers?
The Great Taste logo is widely recognised and instantly denotes quality. Producers can use the logo on their packaging and branding (in accordance with the Guild’s guidelines!) to help identify their products as ranked alongside some of the best in the world. YouGov survey results conducted in 2021 and 2025 show there’s excellent brand recognition for Great Taste in the UK and many consumers use it to make buying decisions and try new products.
7. Does Great Taste help small and newer brands as much as bigger ones?
The accreditation scheme has always operated with a sliding scale for entrants, which means that smaller producers are charged lower entry fees than larger businesses and the Guild of Fine Food team are on hand to fully support all entrants throughout the entire process. We work hard to ensure small producers, or those with short shelf life products can deliver to our judging rooms, and blind-tasting keeps the process on a level playing field for all.
The Guild of Fine Food exists to support independent retailers and producers and the Great Taste awards scheme was created with them in mind. The Great Taste Bursary offers new micro food producers the chance to take part free of charge. It been going since 2023 and is currently open for applications until 5th January 2026. Award-winning bursary participants are supported after they receive their results with a year’s free membership and other benefits. Go to www.gff.co.uk/greattastebursary for more details.
In 2025, the Guild launched Great Taste in Italy, to help encourage smaller Italian producers to enter by removing both geographic and language barriers.
8. What kind of feedback do producers receive when they enter?
Producers receive written feedback from every judging table that assesses their product. Each table of judges has a coordinator who collates all the comments made and writes them into a helpful assessment which is then returned to the producer on results day. Everything recorded is made available privately online, so producers can log in and receive their feedback.
The judges have extensive training on how to review constructively, to ensure that all comments are helpful for those receiving them.
9. Do you have to be a member of the Guild of Fine Food to enter?
No, anyone can enter Great Taste, being a member is not a prerequisite, however members do receive a discount on entry and smaller members receive free logos if they go on to win awards. The only criteria for entering Great Taste is that the product must be commercially available and the producer must confirm that they are registered as a Food Business with the Food Standards Agency, (or FSA-approved exceptions), or registered for food production with a competent authority in their country (if outside the UK).
10. What advice would you give to someone entering Great Taste for the first time?
Go for it! Be brave and be proud of your products. Every year new or tiny companies are recognised by Great Taste and even those who don’t win awards tell us how helpful it is to go through the process and receive feedback. We never share details of who has entered, unless an award is given, so there’s nothing to lose – and with UK and worldwide recognition, everything to gain! Every year new or tiny companies are recognised by Great Taste. Read through all the guidance available online so that you know if you’re product is eligible and when you’ll be required to send sample and if in doubt about anything, give the team a call. We’re all passionate about promoting the finest food and drink in the world and are on hand to help.
www.gff.co.uk/greattaste
