The two-day event will take place on 27-28 September in Dublin and will once again showcase the top steak producers and suppliers from around the world.
Entrants will compete in the three categories - fillet, rib eye and sirloin – with producers from 20 different countries participating in this year’s challenge.
The World Steak Challenge is judged blind by a panel of more than 60 independent experts including Keith Fisher, fourth generation butcher and chief executive of the Institute of Meat; Richie Wilson, executive chef at FIRE Steakhouse; and Ioannis Grammenos, executive chef and Meatologist of Heliot Steak House in London.
Each steak is judged on its own merits against the internationally agreed criteria and the technical testing covers raw and cooked. Steaks that achieve the highest gold medal scores in the technical element then enter the second stage of judging. The scores awarded at this stage for each steak are added to the total from stage one to reach an overall score.
The steak with the highest total score is awarded the title of World’s Best Steak and its producer World’s Best Steak Producer.
The awards will be announced at the Round Room at the Mansion House in Dublin, the perfect setting for the awards following Ireland’s success of winning a record-breaking 46 golds at last year’s event. All 46 gold-medal winning cuts were grass-fed with the most popular, the sirloin, scoring 19 medals, followed by rib eye, which won 16, and the fillet with 11.
This year’s challenge is taking place in conjunction with the official host partner Bord Bia, equipment partner, Synergy Grill Technology and judging partner FIRE Steakhouse.