Entry Process: Great Taste Awards 2026

Picture this: someone has a small food business. Maybe they make incredible chilli jam from a family recipe, or perhaps they’ve perfected a vegan sausage roll that could fool anyone. Their friends and family love it, but getting it into more kitchens is the big dream. This is where something like the Great Taste awards comes in. It’s a huge food and drink competition, and getting one of those little black and gold star labels on a product can change everything. For anyone with a fantastic food or drink creation, the chance to enter the Great Taste 2026 awards is just around the corner, and this year, things are a little different.

A simpler way to enter the competition

Getting an entry ready for a big competition can feel like a lot of work. There are forms to fill in, details to get right, and deadlines to remember. But for the Great Taste 2026 awards, the process has been made a bit easier. One of the best new features is for businesses that have entered before. Instead of starting from scratch, they can now re-submit an entry form from a previous year. That saves a heap of time. Plus, if someone gets interrupted halfway through filling out a form, they can now save a draft and come back to it later. It’s a small change, but it makes a massive difference when juggling a hundred other things. The entry period is also clear for everyone this year. Both members and non-members of the Guild of Fine Food can submit their products anytime between 2 December 2025 and 27 January 2026. This gives all companies, big or small, a decent window to get their entry sorted.

Why would a business even want an award?

It’s a fair question. What does a sticker on a jar actually do? Well, quite a lot, it turns out. Winning a Great Taste award is a huge boost for any business. For small companies, it brings a massive dose of confidence and can lead to real commercial success. Imagine seeing your product on a supermarket shelf for the first time – an award can help make that happen. It’s also brilliant for the whole team. Knowing that industry experts think the product they make is outstanding is a fantastic motivator.

But it’s not just about winning. Every single product that is submitted gets constructive feedback from the judges. This feedback comes from experts in the food world – chefs, critics, and buyers – so it’s proper, useful advice. This means that even if a product doesn’t get an award this time, the business gets valuable notes on how to make it even better for next time. It’s a cost-effective way to get expert opinions. Finally, there's accreditation. Think of it like a quality stamp. When a shopper is in a supermarket, faced with a wall of choices, a Great Taste label helps a product stand out. It builds brand awareness and lets people know that what they’re buying is genuinely special. This increased awareness often leads directly to more sales.

The nitty-gritty: dates and entry costs

It's a good idea to get the dates in the diary. The entry period for the Great Taste 2026 awards opens on 2 December 2025 and closes on 27 January 2026. A word of warning though: the competition has a capacity, meaning there’s a limit on how many entries can be accepted. If it gets full before the closing date, the entry period will end early. So, it pays to be prepared and not leave it to the last minute.

The cost of entry depends on two things: the size of the company and whether they are members of the Guild of Fine Food. The size is based on turnover, which is just the total amount of money the business makes from sales in a year.

Company Size (by Turnover)	Members Entry Cost	Non-Members Entry Cost
Small (< £1m)	£49	£77
Medium (£1m - £5m)	£78	£121
Large (> £5m)	£122	£169

It's worth noting that all these entry costs are without VAT added. And there’s a special cost for supermarket own-brand products, which are charged at £310 per entry. For members, the good news is that their reduced entry costs apply for the entire entry period, giving them a longer window to benefit from the discount. For non-members, becoming members could be a smart move to reduce the overall cost of entry.

Getting the entry ready to go

So, what are the practical steps? For any companies new to the awards, the first thing to do is register for a MyGuild account. This is the online hub for everything related to the entry. If someone else in the team has an account already, they can add their colleagues. Once the account is set up, it’s vital to check that the main awards contact details are correct. This is the person who will get all the important information, so having the right name and email is key. After that, it’s all about marking the diary and gathering the product information. It helps to know which categories the product fits into and what information is needed for the form ahead of time. Being prepared makes the whole entry process much smoother and avoids any last-minute panic, especially with that limited capacity for entries.

Showing off the win with official labels

Let's fast forward to a successful entry. A business wins a prestigious Great Taste award! The next step is to shout about it, and the best way to do that is with the official black and gold star labels. These are the instantly recognisable stickers that go on the packaging. Having these labels on products, especially in the run-up to busy periods like Christmas, can make a huge difference to sales. Companies that have won in previous years can log into their MyGuild account to order more 1-star, 2-star, or 3-star labels. It's a simple way to keep the momentum going from a previous award and continue building brand awareness. It’s all part of celebrating the commercial success that comes from such a well-regarded accreditation in the food and drink world. The entire team behind the product gets a lift from seeing their hard work recognised on the shelf of a shop or supermarket.