Derek Kelly (left) and Philip Regan (right) sales and marketing manager of Kelly Turkeys, with David Evans, head of agriculture for Morrisons Supermarkets who presented the awards

The KellyBronze turkey has been awarded the Taste of Excellence award from publishers of the magazine Pig & Poultry Marketing.

The award was presented to Derek Kelly and Philip Regan, sales and marketing manager of Kelly Turkeys, by David Evans, head of agriculture for Morrisons Supermarkets, at a ceremony at the Roast restaurant in Borough Market in the city of London.

Entries were judged by Morrisons' buying team at their Bradford head office who stated: "The cooked appearance was great and on eating the product had wonderful texture, juiciness and flavour." They were impressed by all aspects of the entry including the packaging and presentation, consumer information and details on cooking.

"This is a great start to 2011 and we've now set ourselves the challenge of building on this through the year," commented Mr Regan.

Last year, the KellyBronze confirmed its place as the premium Christmas turkey by winning top honour as the best traditional product at the British Turkey Awards for the fourth year running.

Kelly Turkeys, based at Danbury, Chelmsford, Essex, is credited with saving the traditional bronze-feathered turkey in the 1980s and is now expanding its KellyBronze Farmers scheme to make the product available locally throughout much of the UK.