The Manchester Food and Drink Festival Awards are the longest standing, best-regarded awards in the region. They are recognised by the industry and consumers in equal measure and are owned and organised by the festival.

They create a benchmark for excellence in the hospitality industries throughout Greater Manchester and are all about celebrating the best of our gastronomic offer in the region.

The Real Junk Food Project Manchester, an organisation that intercepts waste food and makes nutritious meals for everyone, on a pay-as-you-feel donation basis, has gone from strength to strength this year, with a series of sold-out pop-up events across the region, and the announcement of a permenant residency for the waste food warriors at The Wonder Inn on Shude Hill.

Real Junk Food has been nominated for best food and drink pop-up of the year, an award designed to recognise the ever more pioneering food and drink one off projects, events, activities and pop ups happening in the region.

"We're delighted to have been nominated for a second year," said Corin Bell, Director of Real Junk Food Manchester.

"The food & drink festival has been really supportive of the project. We're hoping to host an event as part of the festival this year, but at the moment details are a closely guarded secret! We're really hoping to win best pop-up this year but the competition is pretty strong."

The public votes will be combined with scores from a judging panel of food experts, who will make mystery shop visits to the nominated establishments between now and the official Gala Dinner on 10th October.

This year, awards will be presented in 17 categories including 5 new awards categories for 2016. These have been chosen to reflect the transformation of Manchester’s dining scene in recent years.

“The city’s vast, high-quality and diverse range of excellent dining venues requires a robust set of awards to recognise the breathtaking developments that have taken place in our city over the last few years," said Phil Jones, Festival Founding Director.

"It’s a fantastic time to award eating and drinking establishments here in Manchester. It’s all of these wonderful, mouth-watering venues that help to make us the world-class city that we are in 2016 – a big cheers to that!”

Head over to the MFDF website to cast your votes before the polls close on 28th September at 9am.