Kiwi Fresh Meats in Tauranga has scooped a gold medal for their dry cured streaky bacon. 

Medal winners were announced this evening at an awards ceremony held in Auckland.

Judging took place over three days, with a team of butchers and culinary experts inspecting and sampling our country’s finest bacon and ham products, all produced from 100 per cent New Zealand born and raised New Zealand pork.

Gold, silver and bronze medals were awarded in each of the seven bacon categories and the two ham categories.

From there, all gold medal winners were re-judged against each other to then find New Zealand’s supreme bacon and ham.

A Hawke’s Bay producer scored double gold and took out the overall supreme award for both the bacon and ham categories. 

Wild Game in Hastings impressed the judges with their middle eye/loin bacon and boneless ham entries.

Judge and food writer, Ginny Grant says it's wonderful to see such a high standard of entries this year. 

“The judging panel were looking for great flavour, good salt levels, subtle smokiness and a nice even distribution of fat.  It’s important to get those attributes right to allow the flavour of the pork to shine through.

“The Supreme Bacon winner was a great piece of bacon with a lovely balance of flavour.  Smoke didn’t dominate and most importantly it tasted of pork.”

A less traditional ham took out the supreme award and judges said it was quite unique but refreshing to see a pressed shoulder ham win a national award.

“The winning ham was a beautiful piece of meat – it looked and tasted amazing with a lovely texture.”

Aside from the traditional ways of cooking, Ginny’s top tip is to use bacon and ham as flavouring ingredients in the base of soups or pasta sauces to add depth and richness to various dishes.

“I like to use bacon or ham at the beginning of a dish to get all the flavour of the fat out into the final dish – as we know fat is flavour,” says Ginny.

Whichever way you choose to serve your bacon and ham, you can check out where all the medal winners are located here.