Taste of the West - The West Country's Regional Food Group

Taste of the West is an independent, commercially run, trade body for small and medium sized food and drink producers in the West Country. We are a unique business community with 800 members headed up by an industry-led Board of Directors.

We provide marketing support to the West Country’s food industry, have developed a superb regional food brand and organise a prestigious ‘quality’ awards programme every year. We also organise trade shows with fantastic industry partners such as Hale Events and meet the buyer events to get producers and products in front of buyers (large retailers, small independent retailers and foodservice).

Membership

Membership numbers have grown from 350 in 2004 to nearly 800 now, proving that we truly represents the business side of the food and drink supply chain, from producers to distributors and retailers, as well as hospitality and affiliate members who provide crucial marketing services to the group. Click Here for more details.

Awards

Our regional awards programme is second to none in the whole of the UK. It is the largest and most comprehensive with over 1,000 regional products being tested and benchmarked for quality. In addition, nearly 300 hospitality establishments are assessed for quality of service and local sourcing. Click Here for more details.

Distribution

Our knowledge of the food and drink sector in the West Country has enabled us to team up with a major distributor (J&R Foodservice in Exeter) to consolidate and distribute local products to the retail and foodservice markets. Supplying 10 Mole Valley retail shops as well as Budgens shops and now World Duty Free airport shops. The hub is now responding to strong enquires from the independent as well as multiple retail sector. The hospitality sector is also a strong market for our member’s products. Click here for more details.

South West Chef of the Year

Hailed as the most prestigious foodservice event of the year, this competition is a chance for individuals, young chefs as well as professionals working in the region, to enter a competition to find the very best in the South West region.
For more information on any of the Taste of the West’s activities go to www.tasteofthewest.co.uk