Six Great Taste Golds for Fivemiletown Creamery

Fivemiletown Creamery, Northern Ireland's leading producer of handcrafted speciality cheese gained six gold stars in the UK Guild of Fine Food's Great Taste Awards, announced on Friday.

The company, which employs 90 people in Fivemiletown and sells speciality cheese worldwide, was awarded:

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  Two gold stars for its Housewife's Choice Irish butter;


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  Two gold stars for Boilie cow's cheese pearls filled with green pesto;


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  One gold star for Boilie cow's cheese pearls with sun dried tomatoes; and


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  One star for USA full fat cream cheese.

The Great Taste Awards follow the company's recent success in the International Cheese Festival at Nantwich and at the Great Yorkshire Agricultural Show in Leeds.

Mervyn McCaughey, Fivemiletown Creamery's managing director, commenting on the latest awards for the farmers' owned business and sources high protein milk from dairy farmers across Northern Ireland, said: "The awards showcase the quality and innovation underpinning our cheese, butter and ice-cream and are helping to raise our profile further in key markets such as Great Britain, the Republic of Ireland and other parts of Europe.

"The Great Taste Awards are extremely influential and should translate into additional sales which will enable us to reward our farmers who supply the high protein milk for our developing range of innovative products."

The creamery achieved record sales of its speciality cheeses last year.

The Great Taste Awards is the UK's leading food and drink event. The competitionattracted more than 8,800 entries from companies throughout the UK and Ireland and further afield.

In total, 2,793 food and drink products have been awarded one, two, or three-star gold, with just 123 entries winning three stars.

The annual programme culminates in next month's 'Golden Fork' Awards in London and the naming of the Great Taste Supreme Champion.

Judges during this year's Great Taste included Masterchef winner and restaurateur Mat Follas, restaurant critic Charles Campion and food writers Lucas Hollweg and Xanthe Clay as well as more than 300 food buyers from leading food halls, delicatessens and farm shops across the country.