Canterbury butchers win big at national sausage contest
Foodstuffs South Island
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.
The results came just in time for National Sausage Day,
which is today, Friday, 14 October.
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.
"Supermarkets thrive on community feedback and support, so to be
voted the best by the public is high praise
indeed."
New World Rolleston Butchery Manager Neal 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," Algar says. "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."
"I also want to congratulate all the other winning
butcheries from New World, PAK'nSAVE and Raeward Fresh. For us to
be able to bring all of these medals back down south is a major
achievement."
New World Rolleston owner Roy Bridgman says he's extremely
proud of Neal and his team.
"Neal is a quite simply a real asset to our store," he says.
"Very hard working, very efficient, and absolutely dedicated to
making our butchery perfect. And as these awards have proven, very
good at making delicious and unique sausages
too."
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.
