Australian Ham Week (10-16 November) is all about celebrating and promoting locally produced pork products, and was kicked off this morning with the announcement of the winners of the Australian PorkMark Awards for Excellence.
The Awards were presented at Warren Turnbull's Chur Burger restaurant today (11 November), and comprised three categories: Traditional Artisan Bone-In Leg, Traditional Artisan Boneless, and, for the first time, Nationally Available.
The Nationally Available category is open to butchers and smallgoods processors who make a ham that is available in at least one retail outlet in every state and territory in Australia.
The winners are:
Overall Winner and Best Australian Ham
Paul Rae, Master Meats, QLD
Traitional Bone-In Leg Ham
1st – Paul Rae, Master Meats, QLD
2nd – John Bartlett, Wattle City Meats, VIC
3rd – Franz Knoll, Barossa Fine Foods, SA
Boneless Ham
1st – Tony Rapone, Betocchi Smallgoods, VIC
2nd – John Yeo, westridge Meats, QLD
3rd – Franz Knoll, Barossa Fine Foods, SA
Best Nationally Available Ham
Bill McDeed, IGA Naturally Smoked Bone-In Leg Ham
Click here to see a full list of state winners.
The awards presentation saw the launch of Australian Ham Week, which aims to raise awareness of locally produced pork products. Close to $10 million worth of imported pork products arrives in Australia each week, equating to over 2.7 million kilograms, and around 75 percent of smallgoods consumed in Australia is made from imported pork (however, imported pork meat can only be used in processed products. Fresh pork has to be Australian, by law).
In order to promote Australian products, Australian Pork established the PorkMark, a square pink label which indicates to consumers that ham (or smallgoods) is made from Australian pork.