HURWORTH-BASED Country Valley Foods' Teesside-themed porkers proved a smash with judges of the BPEX Landmark Banger competition to find the best regional sausage.
it was the first time in the Thin Pork Sausage’s 152-year history that it had been entered into a competition, but it narrowly missed a gold medal.
Marketing manger Ruth Connor, who submitted the sausage alongside the special recipe Captain James Cook, which goes on sale for the first time in the company’s Newboulds butchers stores next week, said it had whetted the firm’s appetite for future events.
“it was quite an achievement getting more than 90 out of 100 in our first effort. We have a taste for it now - we’ll definitely be entering again.”
The company makes 1.5tonnes of sausages a week at Hurworth, where it has invested hundreds of thousands of pounds over the past year in improving processing facilities and opening up the meat market to local farmers.
While Thin Pork is its most popular sausage with Teesside customers buying through its stores, caterers prefer the Riverside - a classic, full-sized pork and herb banger.
