An Ipswich fish and chip shop has been ranked in the top percentile by the National Federation of Fish Fryers – and received high praise from its president.

Codfellas, on Greenfinch Avenue, in Chantry, has received a quality accreditation from the NFFF.

According to its president, Andrew Crook, this means that the shop is in “the top percentile in the industry.”

To qualify, each fish and chip shop has to go through a virtual inspection by an NFFF approved assessor, who considers the shop’s presentation, hygiene and cleanliness, staff training, equipment, frying and sales skills and, most importantly, the quality of their fish and chips.

The shop is owned by Ozzie Bozdag.

"To get accredited by this scheme is a huge achievement,” said Mr Crook. “I’ve met Ozzie, and he's a very energetic operator.

“I follow the industry on social media, and he’s certainly one of the stand-out operators for interacting with his community and getting involved.

“You can tell he loves what he does, and that reflects in his business.

“He’s exactly the kind of operator we want in this industry.”

Ozzie is thrilled to have been accredited by the NFF once again, and said he is grateful to his staff.

He said: “My staff are amazing. I would not be able to do this without them. They are always coming to me, asking if they are doing everything correctly, and if they could do things better.

“Without a strong team, you are nothing.”

He continued: “I would personally like to thank all our customers, new and old.

“All businesses have found the coronavirus pandemic extremely difficult and the support and encouragement they have offered has been great. It has motivated us to maintain our high standards which have been recognised with this accreditation.”

Ozzie is also celebrating that his shop was named the UK’s best fish and chip shop by Parkdean Resorts.

The holiday park operator carried out research, considering factors such as cost, portion size and TripAdvisor reviews to find the country’s favourite chip and fish shop, and found Codfellas to be the winner with a 98 per cent ‘excellent’ rating on TripAdvisor.