This is yet another TV con? They ask you to nominate your local outlet. When you do it says this will take a couple of days before it appears. UTTER RUBBISH! More than a week has passed and still my nomination has not appeared. But then it's in Scotland - that far away place at the edge of the universe - not in ENGLAND where they have 5 or 6 chances to win with all their regions.

Obviously this is all decided before hand and asking people to vote or nominate is just a con. Why bother voting, Rhodes will have decided who HE is going allow to win.

I am disgusted with the way this being handled. The outlet I nominated is now wondering where they are - not in the directory that's for sure - and don't believe I did nominate them.

I have always nominated businesses over the last two years but am not bothering this year.

The delicatessen and farm shop that have previously had my vote are - as far as I'm concerned true winners in fresh food. They pride themselves in providing a fantastic selection of fresh, local and specialist produce and are constantly striving to meet consumer demands.

Should they get shortlisted and end up in final why does it have to be a "cook off" - some businesses spend their time finding the fabulous foods for us to buy.

Bakers and coffee shops cook all day long - but could they bake and cook such great foods if the people dedicated to finding these foods weren't recognised.

Gary Rhodes and Co should start looking beyond the finished product!!!

I've just been deleted for telling it as it is.
GR may as well save UKTV Food money and just come on during a break and tell us who he's picked.

I address this query to UKTV Food Heroes ... I nominated a specialist food producer one week ago and have heard absolutely nothing since. Could somebody explain why please. I appreciate there may be a backlog of nominees but this is beginning to reflect badly on whoever it is that has resposibility for running this competition ... I'm in Leicestershire not Scotland by the way. ( see above complaint from Sylvestra. )

Sylvestra asks if this is a con. I don't know, but I do know the process is not what people expect. No wonder the whole selection is completely non-transparent. The last time I nominated was in 2006. No where was the nomination registered, the local shop never got any notice (they probably thought I was making it up).

I don't know if this is a worthwhile programme or not but as long as they keep the whole thing secret and underwraps I won't have anything to do with it.

A very very poorly run competition.

Barshedale...essentially I think that is exactly what happens: GR finds somebody he wants to win and voila, there you have it, Our New Winner!

Clearly this has been decided before any ostensible "vote" is taken. Asking us to vote is just a con game. There's no point in voting as Rhodes has decided who is going to win.

With a genuine vote you could end up with, all Pig Farmers or Jam Makers in the final.
There must be either a pre or post vote, selection process.

The Nomination and voting system does perplex indeed. I nominated a local restaurant and waited a week to vote. When I put in all the details exactly I ended up with ten pages of the same outlet but not the one I had voted for. I had to browse through the A-Z index and eventually found it on page 36 of the B's. Very frustrating and does seem a complete waste of time or as some have suggested ""rigged"!!!

I voted resently for a bisiness and it wasn't accepted and it stated I had voted before, but that was last year, the voting period is from April to July so why can't I leave a review, very very annoying ???

I've found out from a reliable source that this is how it works.
To get to stage two you must, at the end of the voting, be in the top twenty.
You are then interviewed for selection to the Regional Televised Stages.
So there is, a post vote selection process.
Only one problem here. Let us say the top five are hundreds of votes clear of the rest of the field. If they are all Bakers or do not fit in with what the Interviewers want it's "Goodnight Vienna". Votes cast is only the pre-selection, not the finished result!!!!
It's manufactured to keep a televised balance of "Hero's".
Also only one entrant has managed to get through twice.

I was nominated as a local food hero and was given a week to get in my votes, I campaigned really hard to get in as many votes as possible. I was then contacted by the production company and was told that I was in top twenty and they wanted a half hour phone interview which was taken out of my busy day as I am a one man band! This morning I received another phone call from them saying that I hadn't reached the top 5, which is fine, but then I asked " How many votes did I receive" to be told " I CANT TELL YOU" Alarm bells were ringing and I told him that was very suspicious. When asked what I was to tell my customers he said " tell them you were in the top 20" Which means nothing"! When they wont tell you how many votes you had or what no you were in the top 20. Surely after getting all you customers to spend time trying to use the not very quick, helpful voting procedure, I should be able to tell people how many votes I had, and for my benefit so I know that these votes are customers who are supporting my business.

Well all I can say is the top 5 in the next series , after my experience and what all you others are saying , are they in the final because they should be or because they have already been chosen through the back door!!!

Maybe the press department can tell us and release the votes received to the "Local Food Hero" nomines

Thank you for your comments. I am sorry you are unhappy with how your Local Food Hero nomination has been handled . As you know, nominations and voting for the Local Food Hero campaign started on 14 April and ended on 14 July 2008.

Your business was nominated towards the end of the campaign period and your business made it to the top 20 as a result of the huge support of your customers. May I assure you that the top 20 businesses in each region were derived solely from the number of public votes they received.

A panel of independent judges, who are experts in their field, then assessed each business against our published criteria On this occasion, your business didn't make it to the top 5 regional finalists stage.

If a nominee requests information on the numbers of votes received, our policy is to release this information to the businesses that have not progressed to the next stage once the voting period has closed. If this information was not conveyed to you properly, please accept our apologies.

Please click [link] for more details on the criteria, and [link] for details of the panel, and for terms and conditions [link] [link]

Many thanks, UKTV Food

I agree with the comment by Sylvestra, what a CON!! We were pleased to be nominated for the second year and thought that we would do a little more canvasing for votes - some of our loyal customers signed on, left comments but WHERE ARE ARE THEY? We uploaded pictures of the shop and produce growing but UK TV Food managed to put in photos of a man selling bananas. After much hastle we did manage to get this removed but our own photos have never been put on. Thank you to all those who did vote for us but IF we get nominated again next year we shall tell our customers not to waste their valuable time.