World Cheese Award medals for Northern Irish cheddar

Dale Farm Dairies of Northern Ireland has been successful in the annual World Cheese Awards. The company, Northern Ireland's biggest dairy business, gained four medals for its cheddars.

The company, which produces cheese at Cookstown in county Tyrone, was awarded one silver and three bronzes for its cheeses. The silver award was for its extra mature farmhouse cheddar and the bronzes were for grated cheddar, reduced farmhouse cheddar and extra mature farmhouse cheddar.

Dale Farm, owned by the United Dairies Farmers' cooperative, was also successful in the recent UK Great Taste Awards, the Nantwich Cheese Festival and the Froome International Cheese Festival.

In all, 255 judges from around the world took part in the awards, staged alongside the BBC Good Food Show at the NEC in Birmingham.

Of the 2,781 cheeses judged, 50 cheeses were awarded Super Gold medals

The World Cheese Awards, run by the UK's Guild of Fine Food, is the largest and most respected competition of its type in the world.

This year it brought together 2,781 cheeses from 30 countries under one roof, making this the Big Cheese of international competitions.

Judges included cheese experts from the USA, Spain, France, Italy, Belgium, Switzerland, Denmark, Germany, Greece, South Africa, Portugal and Russia.

The competition is truly global, with only 25 per cent of entries from the UK. Others came from Ireland, New Zealand, the USA, Spain, Croatia, Netherlands, Italy, Norway, France, Belgium, Austria, Sweden, Cyprus, Slovakia, Canada, Australia, Greece, Germany, South Africa, Switzerland, Portugal, Denmark and Russia.

Over the last decade the World Cheese Awards have been held in Dublin, Gran Canaria and London, and most recently at the BBC Good Food Show at the NEC.