Three golds, five silvers and a bronze, plus the coveted People’s Choice Award, were all won by Foodstuffs’ Canterbury butchers at the Devro Great New Zealand Sausage Competition.
New World Rolleston won the People’s Choice Award, and gold in the Gourmet Pork category, for its Pork & Tasmanian Apple Cider sausage, while Foodstuffs South Island’s other medal winners were:
Gold
- PAK’nSAVE Riccarton, Country Pork (Pork category)
- New World Rangiora, Free Farmed Pork ‘n’ Fennel (Traditional Flavour category)
Silver
- PAK’nSAVE Riccarton, Old English Beef (Beef category)
- PAK’nSAVE Moorhouse, Traditional Beef (Beef category)
- PAK’nSAVE Riccarton, Bacon, Cheese & Tomato (Gourmet Beef category)
- New World Bishopdale, Creamy Blue Cheese & Beef (Gourmet Beef category)
- New World Stanmore, Lamb, Pumpkin, Feta & Chives (Gourmet Varietal category)
- Raeward Fresh Richmond, Boerewors (Continental Fresh category)
Bronze
- PAK’nSAVE Rangiora, Premium Pork & Mustard (Gourmet Pork category)
The winning sausages competed in a field of 500 entries sent to Retail Meat NZ and judged anonymously. The People’s Choice Award is for the most popular sausage judged at a public voting event.
Foodstuffs South Island GM Retail Tim Donaldson says to have butcheries from eight New World and PAK’nSAVE stores in Canterbury alone secure a quarter of the contest’s medals is a huge accolade. “Particular congratulations go to New World Rolleston owners Roy and Lynne Bridgman, and their butchery manager Neal Algar and his team, for earning the People’s Choice Award,” Donaldson says.
Algar says he’s been making sausages for the past ten years and the award is recognition for all his hard work, as well as that of his butchery team. “I came up with the idea for this sausage but making it was a real team effort. Together we tweaked, tasted and perfected the recipe, and it’s them who actually make the final product, which isn’t easy because it’s handcrafted.”
Bridgman and Algar say they’ll now ramp up production of their winning Pork & Tasmanian Apple Cider sausage, so as many people as possible can taste it for themselves.
