Addmaster’s antibacterial ‘bag for life’ has been named Best New Product category by Britain’s leading food hygiene experts.

The award was made by a panel of experienced food industry professionals chosen from the membership of The Society of Food Hygiene and Technology.

SOFHT is an independent consortium of food industry specialists set up to keep the industry advised of the current hygiene and technology issues and best practice across the entire food chain.

The award was announced at the industry’s prestigious 37th SOFHT Luncheon held on 17 November 2016 at The Savoy in London.

The 5p plastic bag tax introduced in October 2015 has resulted in a surge in the use of reusable shopping bags. It is a concern for consumers because while re-using old grocery bags is good for the environment, they are a potentially powerful breeding ground for harmful bacteria. Independent tests show that bacteria can survive in an ordinary reusable shopping bag for anything up to eight weeks.

The award-winning ‘bag for life’ contains inbuilt Biomaster technology proven to inhibit the growth of dangerous bacteria and help prevent cross-contamination during the weekly shopping trip.

The bag is currently sold by a major UK high street retailer and is also available from Amazon.com.

This is the second award that the antibacterial ‘Bag for Life’ has won this year. In April the product was awarded 'Best New Idea' at Foodex 2016, the UK's premier trade event for the food and drink processing, packaging, ingredients and logistics industries.

Paul Morris, CEO and Founder of Addmaster (UK) Ltd. says: "We have been campaigning hard and for a long time to make the public aware they can protect themselves from food borne pathogens.

The bag for life was a first step to highlight that packaging such as raw chicken can have dangerous levels of bacteria on the outside and so can transfer from shopping trips in unprotected bags.

Food hygiene across the whole supply chain, particularly within the retail and logistics sector, including home delivery is a real hot topic at the moment. Washing delivery crates and separating food items of risk properly is a key ste,p but adding in permanent antibacterial protection with Biomaster gives the added protection the consumer requires and deserves.

Winning this award for the Biomaster Bag for Life is a great achievement for the Addmaster team and goes a long way to demonstrating the social benefits that retailers can provide by adopting innovative packaging technology.”