Northern Ireland medal winners at British Cheese Awards

Two Northern Ireland dairy companies have won medals at the recent British Cheese Awards. The medal winners in the annual event were Dale Farm, Belfast and Fivemiletown Creamery, County Tyrone.

Dale Farm, Northern Ireland's biggest dairy business, gained two gold medals for its Dromona brand cheese - Dromona Mild Cheddar in the Mild Cheddar Block category and Dromona Extra Mature in the Mature category.

Fivemiletown Creamery, Northern Ireland's leading producer of speciality soft cheese, gained silver for its O'Reilly's Goats' Cheese with Mustard and bronze for O'Reilly's Goats' Cheese with Chives in the Goats' Cheese with Added Ingredients category. The artisan creamery also gained a bronze medal for its Ballyblue, a distinctive blue-veined cheese, in the Soft Blue White category.

Fivemiletown also used the awards, held annually to coincide with British Cheese Week, to launch a completely new convenience meal idea - Goats' Boilie Pesto in Rapeseed Oil, a healthy option.

The new marinaded cheese, the outcome of an extensive new product development investment by the creamery, which sourced fresh milk from 60 dairy farmers in Tyrone's Clogher Valley, gained a bronze medal in the Fresh Flavoured Cheese category.

Both companies have lengthy track records of success at major international cheese competitions including the Nantwich Cheese Festival and the UK Great Taste Awards.

The British Cheese Awards were launched in 1994 by Juliet Harbutt, a recognised cheese expert, to help showcase the quality and variety of cheeses produced in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland.

The 2011 awards, sponsored by major retailers including M&S and Tesco and other companies such as Danisco and The Cheese Cellar, attracted over 900 cheeses from 182 companies. Twenty two cheeses were entered by Northern Ireland companies.