Col's Butchery & Deli in Mount Maunganui has won a silver medal for their Boneless Ham in the 100% New Zealand Bacon and Ham Awards. The medal was announced on Thursday nightt at a formal awards ceremony in Auckland.

After a three-year break, the competition was back up and running with more entries than ever before – almost 200 being received across seven bacon and two ham categories.

Judging took place over two days, with a team of butchers and culinary experts inspecting and sampling our country's finest bacon and ham products, all produced using 100% New Zealand born and raised pork.

Back after a three-year hiatus, the 100% New Zealand Bacon & Ham Awards is a prestigious competition well regarded by the retail meat trade and consumers alike. With seven bacon categories, and two ham categories, the competition was open to all retailers who produce bacon and ham from New Zealand Pork.

With almost 200 entries, from around 40 retailers being judged, the competition sees bacon and ham producers from across the country submit their tasty products in the hope of being announced one of the Supreme Winners.

Gold, silver and bronze medals were awarded in each of the bacon and ham categories and then all the gold medal winners were re-judged against each other to find the supreme winners producing the country's top bacon and top ham.

Warkworth Butchery, just North of Auckland, took out New Zealand's top bacon with their dry cured middle bacon entry and Auckland's Westmere Butchery has won New Zealand's best ham award for their bone-in leg ham.

Competition judge, Hannah Miller Childs says when choosing the winning ham it was largely about finding something with great smoky characteristics as well as good texture.

'You want it to be nice and meaty but still be moist and have enough fat content,” says Hannah.

The judges found picking the ham winner fairly easy as Westmere Butchery's Bone-In Ham was 'insanely delicious”.

In contrast to this the bacon was a very close competition, and the judges had to re-taste some of the products to ensure they picked the right one!

'It's been an honour to be a part of the judging this year and incredible to see not only the quality of the beautiful New Zealand pork, but also the butchers' talents improve over the years. This is definitely making our jobs a lot harder as judges," says Miller Childs.

While bacon is arguably a favourite any time of year, the announcement of New Zealand's top ham comes just in time to inspire Kiwi's to host a mid-winter Christmas, with a glazed ham as the centre piece!

100% New Zealand Bacon and Ham Awards 2022 results:

2022 Supreme Award - Bacon
Warkworth Butchery – Dry Cured Middle Bacon

2022 Supreme Award - Ham
Westmere Butchery – Bone In Leg Ham