Klein River Cheese Dairy Product of the Year

Klein River Cheese Grana, a slow-matured hard cheese, produced by Klein River Cheese, outside Stanford, has earned the most coveted honour of 2014 Product of the Year at the DuPont Qualité Awards, organised by Agri-Expo. This prestigious accolade, as well as the Qualité awards granted to selected top dairy products present the highest honour of the SA Dairy Championships, which was presented this year for the 180^th time. This year, 68 producers entered 821 products in the categories for butter, cheese, cottage cheese, yoghurt, flavoured milk, dairy dips, ice cream and dairy dessert. According to internationally experienced cheese judge, Ulf Mortensen, the general level of quality of the entries has improved since he last judged at the SA Dairy Championships in 2012.

Fifteen exceptional products will wear the 2014 Qualité mark of excellence. This year, Lancewood led with the highest tally of Qualité awards with no fewer than four for their cottage cheeses. Marcel’s Frozen Yoghurt won three awards and Clover SA won two. Belnori Boutique Cheesery, Fair Cape Dairies, Karoo Goat’s Milk Products, Klein River Cheese, Parmalat SA and Van der Poel Kaas were awarded one Qualité each.

Ninety-five of the 821 dairy products entered for this year’s championships were heralded as SA Champions. Parmalat took the lead with 13 champions, followed by Lancewood (10), Fair Cape Dairies (7) and Belnori Boutique Cheesery and Clover SA with six each. The MPO congratulates them on their exceptional achievements.