This year, Agri-Expo will present the SA Dairy Championship as a forerunner to the SA Cheese Festival enabling dairy producers to showcase their newly crowned champion cheeses at the festival.

Dairy producers - ranging from farm cheese makers to national dairy producers - may enter products in six categories - butter; cheese; cottage cheese; cultured and flavoured milk; ice cream and yogurt.

Entries will compete for sought-after titles, trophies and awards during adjudication at the ARG Dairy Laboratory in Stellenbosch on 10 and 11 April. Each dairy product is judged blind on appearance, colour, structure, texture and taste by a specialist panel of five judges according to the internationally-recognised 20 point system.

Dairy products that excel by scoring 17.5 or more points are honoured with a Quality Award - the country's highest honour for excellence in the making of dairy products. Qualité Awards also serve as an endorsement of quality for the consumer.

Dairy champions, winners of coveted Qualité Awards and the 2002 Dairy Product of the Year will be capped at the National Dairy Awards Dinner in Stellenbosch on 24 April. Cheeses that excel at this event will be presented for tasting at the SA Cheese Festival, also presented by Agri-Expo.

Contact Memory Kalis at Agri-Expo, tel 021 975 4440/1/2/3, fax 021 975 4446 or e-mail [email protected] for further information re the 2002 SA Dairy Championships and Qualité Awards.