A popular and much acclaimed butchers has achieved more award recognition after two of its products were named as finalists in two different categories of a national food awards.

Martin Thomas Butchers have seen its Dry Salted Air Dried Treacle Streaky Bacon and its traditional Black Pudding named as finalists in the Charcuterie and Speciality categories at the Great British Food Awards.

The butchers on Wolverhampton Road on Pattingham have been regular finalists in the awards since first entering in 2020 and winning the Charcuterie category overall, while the bacon and black pudding both won Gold in the 2024 awards in the Bacon Category and British Speciality Category respectively.

Owner Craig Thomas said the bacon has been winning awards for three years, while the black pudding has been an habitual winner since 1998 and said it showed the consistency of the product and of the way it was judged.

He said: "It's unbelievable to have both products named in two separate categories, particularly after they split the categories last year with the bacon and the speciality categories.

"This year, they were doing categories for butcher's counter, charcuterie and British speciality and I didn't want to put the black pudding in the butcher's counter and as it has won in 2020 in charcuterie and Michel Roux Jr said it was the best black pudding in the specialist category, I thought I would enter both the black pudding and bacon in the other two categories.

"The judging is done internally and seeing both being shortlisted in both categories means that the product must be consistent and the judging must be consistent."

Mr Thomas said he was always proud of the award acknowledgement and said it showed how much his products were valued when put up against supermarket brands, ahead of the announcing of the awards on October 27.

He said: "I'm proud and, to be honest, pretty amazed because when you imagine how much we're up against supermarket brands and companies who supply supermarkets, as a small shop, we are doing a great job battling it out with those companies in terms of the judging.

"We've already sent the next round of products up for the last round, which have gone to restaurants like Michel Roux Jr daughter's restaurant and to the Intercontinental at Hyde Park, so we're pretty far ahead in the judging process.

"The products that win are the ones available to buy in the shop and everything we sell is made the same way all the time, so we're proud to be able to offer the same products at the same quality as the one's which get judged."