CREAM OF THE DAIRY INDUSTRY CROWNED

A farm cheese is master of this year's South African Dairy Championships. La Montanara's goat's milk Romano was crowned Dairy Product of the Year at the SA Dairy Championship awards dinner on Wednesday night. In addition, this king of cheeses also clinched a Qualité Award.

La Montanara - nestled at the foot of the Langeberg Mountains near Bonnievale - attribute their success to the finest milk concentrate and state-of-the art equipment imported from Denmark.

The 2002 SA Dairy Championships, presented by Agri-Expo, attracted a record 374 entries from farm cheesemakers to national dairy producers countrywide. This year's championship also boasts 15 brand new entrants.

Specialist panels judged dairy products entered in six categories - butter; cheese; cottage cheese; cultured and flavoured milk; ice cream and yoghurt - earlier this month. Each entry was judged blind on appearance, colour, structure and taste by a panel of five judges using the internationally recognised 20-point system.

Of the products entered, 50 were crowned SA Champions and 18 superior quality dairy products were also capped with a Qualité Award. Only those champion dairy products that excel by scoring 17,5 or more points out of 20, are awarded a Qualité 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.

Commenting on the Qualité Awards, Agri-Expo's, general manager, John van Breda, said, "It is of prime importance for the consumer that the Qualité emblem is associated with superior quality dairy products. Products that are awarded a Qualité emblem this year will be monitored randomly throughout the year. Producers will not be notified of this procedure, as samples will be taken from the shelf in the trading environment and re-evaluated by a representative panel."

This year Parmalat boasts the most coveted titles and trophies, namely nine SA Championship trophies and five Qualité Awards. Lancewood came a close second with eight SA Champions and five Qualité Awards.

Parmalat's Bon Blanc White Cheddar, Matured Cheddar, butter and cultured milk each won a Qualité Award. Parmalat's Aylesbury Royalty Dutch Choc ice cream gathered the producer's fifth Qualité Award.

Four of Lancewood's cottage cheeses - fat-free chunky cottage cheese, low-fat chunky cottage cheese, low-fat smooth cottage cheese and Lancewood Coronation Chicken - will soon bear the Qualité label. Lancewood's Spring Onions/Chives cream cheese also won a Qualité Award.

Another cottage cheese that excelled, was DairyBelle's creamed cottage cheese, smooth or chunky, that walked off with a Qualité Award.

Other quality cheeses that will soon be able to display the Qualité label are Clover Gouda and Forrest Hill Camembert. Forest Hill's cheesemaker, Ian Nicol, - who specialises in French cheeses - is the only other farm cheesemaker, apart from La Montanara, that clinched a Qualité Award.

However, the limelight wasn't stolen by cheese alone. EVGA Cadbury Caramel ice cream, Portifino's Cassata frozen dessert, CAS Kisses and Fair Cape Dairies' low-fat strawberry-flavoured yoghurt without fruit all achieved championship status and walked off with Qualité Awards.

Cheese enthusiasts will have the opportunity to taste the newly-crowned SA champion cheeses and winners of Qualité Awards at the SA Cheese Festival - also presented by Agri-Expo - at Bien Donné from 26 to 28 April.

Superior quality dairy products, emblazoned with a distinctive black and gold Qualite emblem, will soon be displayed on shelves countrywide throughout the year.

A pocket-size results booklet - listing all the 2002 SA Dairy Champions and Qualité winners - may be ordered by contacting Agri-Expo at tel (021) 975 4440/1/2/3 or fax (021) 975 4446 or visit the Cheese Festival website www.cheesefestival.co.za for further details.