Bakery companies from across Scotland have been named as finalists for the Scotland Food & Drink Excellence Awards 2019.

In the bakery category, finalists include Aldi and Dean’s, with the latter having three products – Dean’s Sour Cherry & Dark Chocolate Scottish Shortbread, Dean’s Steven Brown Art, Lizzie McCoo All Butter Shortbread and Tesco Finest Spiced Apple Crumble Shortbread – in the running.

In the Confectionery, Drinks & Snacking category, The Drinks Bakery has been announced a finalist for both its Lancashire Cheese & Spring Onion and Mature Cheddar, Smoked Chilli & Almond Drinks Biscuits.

“Every year the Excellence Awards attracts an incredibly diverse range of entrants, all of which are of a very high quality. This year we’ve had a record number of entries and the standard has never been higher,” said James Withers, chief executive of Scotland Food & Drink.

“While tasting each of the products entered into the awards sounds like a dream, in reality, selecting the very best of the best has been extremely difficult for our expert judging panel.” 

Winners from all 19 categories, including the above, will be announced at the awards ceremony and dinner on Thursday 23 May 2019 at the Corn Exchange in Edinburgh.