Success for Northern Ireland at World Cheese Awards

Three Northern Ireland companies have been successful at the prestigious World Cheese Awards in London. Fivemiletown Creamery headed the list of Northern Ireland successes with a gold for its unique Boilie goats' cheese pearls.

Fivemiletown also gained a silver for its naturally smoked Oakwood Cheddar and bronze for another goats' cheese, O'Reilly's Original.

The creamery, owned by 60 dairy farmers, mostly based in County Tyrone, is Northern Ireland's only producer of speciality soft cheese products. The company also gained awards for its cheese, including Boilie, at this year's International Dairy Federation Innovation Awards at Parma, Italy, the Nantwich International Cheese Festival and the UK Great Taste Awards.

Dale Farm, Northern Ireland's biggest dairy processing business, gained three awards, a silver and two bronze, for its cheddars. Achieving silver was the company's Extra Mature Cheddar. Dale Farm also gained major awards at Nantwich International Cheese Festival and the UK Great Taste Awards.

In the blue veined cheese category, Kearney Blue Cheese gained a bronze award for a cheese launched earlier in the year. Kearney Blue is Northern Ireland's most recent cheese produce and is essentially a farmhouse product created by Paul McClean, a blue cheese enthusiast. The cheese gained a gold award at the Nantwich event.

The Northern Ireland products were among more than 2,500 cheeses from over 30 countries. The awards were judged rigorously by a high-profile panel of judges in what is now the world's largest and most prestigious cheese competition. The competition, organised by the UK Guild of Fine Food, has been running for over 20 years.

Mervyn McCaughey, Fivemiletown Creamery's managing director, commenting on the gold award, said: "Winning three medals, including a gold for our unique Boilie product, in this immensely important event for the international cheese industry is tremendously encouraging and will support our drive to boost sales in Great Britain, the Republic of Ireland and further afield.

"Our Boilie Irish goats'cheese is rapidly becoming a 'hero' product which is attracting sales throughout Europe and most recently to Asia. Boilíe Irish Goat's Cheese, marinaded with herbs and garlic infused oil, features a distinctive flavour which cheese lovers are increasingly seeking.

"It's one of the products behind the significant growth in sales of speciality cheese that we've experienced over the past two years. We anticipate further growth in sales of this cheese in international markets over the next few years."