The annual celebration of the county’s food and drink will now take place in 2021.

With uncertainty facing many businesses within the food and drink industry across the UK, Archant has taken the decision to postpone its annual Eat awards in the county, with a later date set in 2021.

The Archant events team has given the following statement: “The EAT Norfolk Food and Drink awards is the annual celebration of the food and drink industry in Norfolk. The current coronavirus situation and the resultant lockdown however has understandably affected many businesses in the sector. Many food and drink businesses have adapted and diversified during the COVID-19 crisis however sadly many have had to close completely and are beginning to think about what their business may look like as we slowly emerge from this pandemic. This clearly has an affect on the awards as well. We pride ourselves on our entry process being robust and allowing us to be certain that we are crowning the very best winners and finalists each and every year. Due to COVID-19 we are unable to complete the judging process this year in a robust manner and feel it would not be fair on the businesses to be judged at such a time when social distancing measures will likely be in place and they are fully focussed on recovering from this difficult situation. We have therefore taken the decision to postpone the EAT Norfolk Food and Drink Awards 2020. All entries so far will be taken forward when we re-open for entries in Autumn 2020, with a view to judging the awards in early 2021 and holding our black-tie event in April 2021. We very much look forward to welcoming the Norfolk food and drink industry to celebrate their resilience, innovation and determination at our April awards ceremony.”

A huge thankyou to all our sponsors for their ongoing support.

They include:

Headline sponsor: Bakers & Larners of Holt

Category sponsors: Norwich Research Park, City College Norwich, Gerald Giles, Norwich Accountancy Services, Foodcare, Easton College, Richard Hughes Cookery School, Barsby Produce, Castlemeadow Care, Hansells Solicitors and Financial Advisers, East of England Co-op, Woodforde’s Brewery.

We look forward to seeing everyone in 2021.