SINCE its launch six months ago, the Gloucestershire It's About Taste campaign has been promoting the rich variety of the county's produce to pubs, restaurants and hotels.

The high profile, unique campaign is being funded by the Regional Development Agency and is jointly managed by Gloucestershire Taste of the West and Gloucestershire Tourism.

To promote awareness of the range of quality food and drink from the county, the initiative is working closely with food and drink producers and hospitality businesses.

One of those taking part is Peter Robinson, of the Kings Arms, Stow.

He said: "I believe the whole initiative will grow and continue to snowball. While I fully support the campaign and have indeed picked up a few new suppliers, I would urge producers out there not to be afraid of contacting chefs, perhaps by sourcing restaurants from the directory on the tastegloucestershire website. We are always on the lookout for good quality local produce."

He added: "Customers like to know where the food that they are eating comes from, and the fact that we buy as much local produce as we do, and promote the fact by displaying on a blackboard a list of suppliers, provides reassurance."

Mike Otter, Gloucestershire manager of Taste of the West, said: "The aim of the campaign is to increase the amount of locally produced food and drink being served in the county's hospitality establishments.

"Gloucestershire is particularly well served with many high quality small and medium-sized food producers and we believed the penetration of their excellent produce within the county's catering service businesses was not as high as it could be. It was also found that many caterers were wanting to specialise in local ingredients but were often finding it difficult to source local food."

The www.tastegloucestershire.co.uk website offers a wide ranging service including directories of both county food and drink producers and hospitality businesses as well as a virtual press office for producers to promote their produce online.