Marking the 11th annual competition, the Awards are open to anyone who sells pies commercially in the UK, with the winner to be announced 8 March at Melton Mowbray - the pork pie ‘capital’ – coinciding with British Pie Week (4-10 March).
New for this year are:
Best Young Piemaker Award – celebrating the talent of ‘promising’ young bakers
Vegan pie Class – launched in response to the UK producing the highest number of vegan food products in 2018
Fish and Chip Shop themed pie class – each year the awards include a ‘special’ themed class, this year celebrating fish and chip shop pies
Matthew O’Callaghan, chairman of host Melton Mowbray Pork Pie Association, said: “Over the past 11 years, we have judged over 8,000 pies with the help of around 150 pie connoisseurs and culinary experts.
“Each pie is judged on presentation, consistency and of course, flavour – it’s a very serious, albeit delicious, undertaking.
“Every year we are blown away by the creativity and quality that goes into reinventing or perfecting a national favourite.
“With the new vegan pie class and fish and chip shop class, we expect this year will be equally exciting, if not more so.”
The 2019 Awards are open until 15 February via http://www.britishpieawards.co.uk/.