The Cinderella sausage is no more, having been replaced by top quality bangers with a host of new flavours.

To mark British Sausage Week, which runs next week, the British Pig Executive has been holding a Catering Sausage of the Year Competition and the finals were in London on Monday.

The regional winners and runners up were invited to the event to find an overall champion. The winner was David Tomlins of the Country Butcher, based in Huntley, Gloucestershire, with a traditional pork sausage.

He said: "I was really surprised to win. I knew I had a good sausage because I sell it to a number of hotels in the area and they have all complimented me on it. I put the success of my sausages down to the use of quality British pork - I would not use any thing else.

"Competitions like this are extremely important. It shows what can be achieved. If people don't try to improve all the time they will fall off the bottom of the menu."

BPEX foodservice development manager Richard Fagan said: "This competition is proving to be extremely popular.

"We had an important new category this year for a low sodium, low fat sausage reflecting the current interest in diet and health. The winner here was extremely good."

Source: British Pig Executive - 19th October 2004