Irish exhibitors shine at global cheese and dairy awards

Musgrave took home Retailer of the Year Awards for both cheese and yoghurt. File picture

Irish exhibitors figured prominently at the recent International Cheese & Dairy Awards (ICDA) in England.

Irish entries did well in all categories, including overall awards in the retailer and foodservice categories.

Retailer of the Year Awards for both cheese and yogurt went to the Cork-based Musgrave Group, Ireland's leading grocery retail and wholesale company. 

A Best Food Service Excellence Award went to Tirlán Ireland for its cooking cheese. 

The Arla Foods Trophy also went to Tirlán, for the Champion UK Creamery/Block Cheddar. 

The Supreme Champion Cheese came to Staffordshire from the other side of the world, with Lactalis New Zealand winning with its Kapiti Kikorangi Triple Cream Blue.

Champion Cheese UK and Reserve Supreme Champion were among the awards for the Bourne’s Cheshire Cheese farmhouse dairy.

But there were numerous gold awards for Irish exhibitors, after the ICDA judging of more than 4,500 entries from around the world, divided into hundreds of specific classes.

Ornua, the Irish global leader in dairy products, said the superior taste of its quality butter and cheese was recognised at the awards, one of the world’s largest and longest running dairy competitions, judged by more than 250 international dairy industry experts and master cheese graders.

Ornua was awarded 14 awards including five gold, four silver, and five bronze awards. 

Golds were awarded for mild cheddar and best vegetarian cheddar both made by Carbery Group; and silver for the mature cheese made by Dairygold Co-Op, extra mature made by Tirlán, and vintage cheddar made by Carbery Group. 

Bronze awards were won by mature and extra mature cheddar, both produced by Wexford Co-op (Tirlán).

Ornua’s flagship Kerrygold brand also celebrated two gold award wins for two of the brand’s most recent additions to the Kerrygold line-up of Irish grass-fed dairy products. 

They were Kerrygold Cream Cheese and Kerrygold Pure Irish Butter with Olive Oil, which recently launched in the UK and Ireland.

Pilgrims Choice, the UK’s No 2 branded cheddar, made by Ornua, picked up a gold for its blended cheddars and a bronze for its extra mature block cheddar. 

The Kerrygold Trophy for the Best Irish Cheddar went to Tirlán.

Carbery Group also won gold in the cheese with health benefits class, and Tirlán won the top award in the class for casual dining or café service cheese.

The Irish wins came as cheese stands out as the global dairy industry’s growth engine. 

And cheese’s whey by-product is the industry star, with a five-fold price rise to record levels, as companies race to secure supplies amid a whey protein boom driven by growing use of weight loss drugs.

The International Cheese & Dairy Expo is the premier global event connecting industry professionals across retail, wholesale, foodservice, manufacturing, and hospitality, attracting more than 2,500 delegates.