Award success for butcher Gerald Matthews

The competition was held at the South of England showground at Ardingly with awards run by BPEX, which is a government-funded organisation set up to promote British meat.

Gerald hit gold for his Sussex oak smoked bacon, Sussex special sausage, and pork, chocolate and chilli sausage. He won silver for the Sussex unsmoked bacon, his pork, duck and plum sausage, and a pork, venison and red wine sausage.

He commented: "We go to this event every year - mainly because we like to see that we are maintaining our standard of product which is something we all work at. All the staff do their bit, and everyone has a hand in it...We like to think we are progressive and continually trying to improve our products.

"We go along to these awards each year because we get proper feedback from them, from the experts. It feels good - the competition is ferocious with some 400 odd entries, and some of them are really excellent. Other people obviously work very hard at getting these awards - as we do."

Judges are drawn from major food industries and examine the product both before and after cooking to check consistency and taste.

Gerald said: "For example, with the pork, venison and red wine sausage, you have to get a lovely mix, it must not be dominated by one strong flavour.

"We were pleased with the bacon because it is something new - we cure it here on the premises, so we were particularly pleased with the gold for the smoked bacon because it shows we must be doing it right."