Manchester-based ready meal producer, The Authentic Food Company has won this year’s Food Northwest Green Business Award which was sponsored by Foundation.

During the last 18 months the company, which employs 230 employees and has been manufacturing frozen ready meals and snacks for 25 years, has put green credentials at the top of its agenda.

Its ‘Go Green’ campaign has helped to introduce a range of green measures which have resulted in the company saving an estimated 4580 tonnes of carbon.

The rapeseed oil which is used by the company to fry snacks, is now collected by contractors to prevent it going to landfill, and is recycled as bio-fuel. And planning to go one stage further, the company is currently looking at installing generators that can be powered by its own recycled rapeseed oil to generate energy for the factory.

The company also runs an internal environmental awareness campaign which encourages staff to be environmentally aware in their everyday work. The campaign’s mascot, Mr Green, reminds everyone to recycle, switch off lights and computers and gathers ideas to help the company be as energy efficient as possible.

Operations director Paul Harnetty, said: “Winning this award will help us to raise awareness of the environment and highlight how other companies can work towards improving their environmental credentials. It also rewards the efforts of everyone involved in our ‘Go Green’ campaign.”

This year’s Food Northwest Awards saw a record 150 entries in nine categories from firms across the region.

For a full list of winners and a gallery of photographs from the event please visit
www.foodnwawards.co.uk