The soft cheese stole the show in the highly competitive cooking cheeses category, winning two coveted gold awards and a bronze award.

Full Fat Soft Cheese (Plain) and American Style Full Fat Soft Cheese both won gold, with the company also celebrating a bronze award for its Medium Fat Soft Cheese (Plain).

Dairygold was the only company to receive a gold award in the cooking cheeses category and won three of only seven awards made in this category.

Terry Cunningham, Dairygold Food Ingredients’ Sales & Marketing Director, said: “The British Cheese Awards is a celebration of the very best in British cheese-making. Winning three awards – and in particular two gold’s - is testimony to the outstanding quality and variety of soft cheeses produced by the Leeds dairy for many of the leading names in the UK food production industry.”

Dairygold supplies soft cheeses to a wide range of food producers including desserts, ready meals, bakeries, sandwich producers and many other sectors of the foodservice industry.

Over 900 cheeses were entered into this year’s British Cheese Awards by almost 180 cheese makers, resulting in this year’s competition being the toughest ever. The awards were held on the evening of Friday, September 24, at the National Museum, Cardiff.

With a well-established presence in the Food ingredients market, this year Dairygold Food Ingredients is actively looking to increase its market share in both the retail and foodservice channels with the creation of The Imokilly Cheese Company.

The brand is destined for export to both the UK and mainland Europe as well as being launched in the domestic Irish market.

"Dairygold is well known as a major dairy ingredients supplier, but our market within consumer foods is less well established and in order to position ourselves better we have created this specific brand."

Overall, the range will include 12 products, with different varieties available in different geographical markets, depending on the local tastes and consumer demand with an active NPD agenda to meet future taste and flavour preferences.

Svitlana also states "This is what The Imokilly Cheese Company can offer: a quality product with authentic flavour, offering the consumer good value"

Launching the range this summer, Svitlana says "to successfully launch this brand into the retail market in the UK and Europe would be a great achievement for Dairygold and I'm sure the concept will be well received."

A panel of expert judges from the dairy industry judged Dairygold’s Grated Mature Cheddar as best in class as it scooped the prestigious Bradbury & Son Award. It also picked up The David Dunn Memorial Trophy for a ‘Display of Cheese on Cheese Board’, and a Gold award for its Dairygold Cheddar (1.8% salt) in the ‘Cheese with health benefits – hard cheese category.

Dairygold’s 1.8% salt cheddar is part of a recently launched range of cheeses which balance the consumer’s desire for taste and functionality with the need to reduce fat and salt levels in our diet. Aidan Fitzsimons, Director of Innovation, explained: “Consumers want to eat healthy food without compromising on flavour. This award recognises the achievements of our NPD and Operations teams in delivering against both these requirements.”

Dairygold’s outstanding achievements at this year’s awards continued as the company was also awarded a Silver award for its Queso Tierno Light. This cheese has been very successful in the Spanish market and mirrors the traditional Spanish young cheese. It’s characterized by influences of goat’s and sheep milk, while offering a reduced fat content. Dairygold was also awarded Bronze for its Dairygold Mature Cheddar, as well as being very highly commended in three other classes.

Now in its 114th year, this year’s competition was greater than ever, attracting over 3,000 entrants from 24 countries.

Richard Paul, Show Chairman, said: “We had record entries and the standard across the board was extremely high – our panel of 140 judges really did have their work cut out to make their selections.”

Dairygold Food Ingredient’s Group Commercial Director, Chris Edge said: “We’re absolutely delighted with the results at Nantwich as it is testament to our heritage, hard work and dedication that goes into our cheese making.

“We pride ourselves on manufacturing from the finest natural ingredients, using generations of cheesemaking craft and expertise to provide the very best products for our customers. While Dairygold is well known as a major dairy ingredients supplier, we will continue to innovate with our active NPD agenda to meet future taste and flavour preferences.”

The results at Nantwich follow an extremely successful few months for Dairygold Food Ingredients as it recently saw success in Wisconsin, USA at the World Cheese Awards with its Block Mature Cheddar (aged 12-24 months), ahead of entries from specialist producers and commercial manufacturers as far afield as New Zealand.

It has also launched a new retail brand, The Imokilly Cheese Company, which debuted at the Nantwich International Cheese Show. One of its 12-strong range of premium speciality cheeses has already achieved Protected Designation of Origin Imokilly Regato, again testament to the company’s craft and expertise.

For more details on Dairygold Food Ingredients, call 0870 766 9563 or e-mail sales@dairygoldfoodingredients.com

Dairygold's cheddar, aged 12 - 24 months, produced for the Irish Dairy Board was judged to be best in its class, ahead of entries from specialist producers and commercial manufacturers as far afield as New Zealand, Canada and the USA. The championships, now in its 26th year, featured more than 2,300 cheeses from around the world. Each cheese was judged by an international panel of experts; these experts were charged with the selection of products in each class that best exemplified perfection for a given cheese variety.
“We are thrilled to receive such a prestigious award for our cheddar,” says Eugene O'Connor Plant Manager, “which recognises our produce as the best of its type in the world. Dairygold is committed to producing cheeses with authenticity, quality and consistency and this award rewards our focus.   In every part of the production process, we are resolved to provide the very best products that we can for our customers every time they order from us, and being acknowledged as World Champions recognises this drive for perfection. Everyone at Dairygold Food Ingredients is very proud of this success.”
This award is the second major achievement for Dairygold Food Ingredients’ cheddar in the past year, after following success at International Nantwich Cheese Show 2009.