Food manufacturing heroes sought for BBC Future Food Award

The BBC Farming Today ​Future Food Award celebrates food and drink supply chain heroes, who are pioneering cutting-edge innovation that could revolutionise the way food is produced, processed, delivered or sold in Britain.

This award turns the spotlight on new thinking in some aspect of the British food and drink supply chain. It could be food processors, who have deployed new technology to boost food safety or reformulate products, farmers and their suppliers who using precision farming to minimise environmental impacts, or retailers who are using new ideas to help improve the national diet.

Whatever the nature of the innovation, it must have the potential to transform the UK food supply chain, be scalable, commercially viable and applicable to food production, distribution and retail in this country.

Transform the UK food supply chain​

This year’s winner will follow the success of London’s subterranean salad business Growing Underground last year​.

Based 33m below the streets of Clapham in south London, Growing Underground produces salad crops and microgreens under LED lighting using a hydroponic system, without the need for pesticides.

Growing peas, purple radish, coriander, fennel and garlic chives in crops in a closed ebb-and-flood system in liquid fortified with nitrogen, phosphate and potassium, the business cuts food miles to the barest minimum.

Cuts food miles to the barest minimum​

Finalists in last year’s awards were community-owned Seed Co-operative, which breeds open pollinated varieties of seeds, and Islander – Rathlin Kelp, based on Raithlin Island, off Northern Ireland, which grows and processes kelp to make a range of food products and ingredients. Read more about the finalists in the box below.

The BBC Farming Today​ Future Food Award is one of a series of awards dedicated to celebrating the achievements of food and farming heroes, who are making a big impact on the way people source and enjoy Great British food and drink. Among the categories open for nomination​ this year include Best Food Producer and Best Street Food or Takeaway Award.

Nominations can be made online ahead of the deadline on January 29​.