Praise for this year's AGDA entrants and judging process

Thursday 19 January 2012 | From Dairy Australia

As the official judging process for the 2012 Australian Grand Dairy Awards (AGDA) winds up and scores are tallied, everyone involved is sworn to silence for the next four months.

Dairy and cheese producers from around Australia will now have to wait patiently until the awards presentation in March 2012 to discover if their product has been crowned an AGDA Gold Champion. Two of those Gold Champions will also be named the ultimate AGDA Grand Champions, one for the best dairy product and one for the best cheese.

Russell Smith has been the AGDA deputy chief judge for the past eight years and believes the quality of the products presented before the AGDA judging panel, as well as the judging process itself just keep getting better.

“We’ve seen some fabulous products come through once again which have been an absolute pleasure to judge,” he said. “I judge at different shows and events over all Australia and you just can’t fault the preparations made by Dairy Australia for the AGDA. It’s an extremely streamlined process.”

This year, 115 cheeses have been judged in nine classes:

- Fresh Unripened Cheese
- Semi – Hard / Eye Cheese
- Hard Cheese
- Washed Rind Cheese
- Goat's or Sheep's Milk Cheese
- White Mould Cheese
- Cheddar Style Cheese
- Blue Cheese
- Flavoured Cheese

In the dairy product category, 218 products were judged in 11 classes:

- Natural Yogurt
- Yogurt Based Dairy Drink
- Dairy Gelato
- Milk
- Flavoured Dairy Drink
- Butter or Butter Blend
- Flavoured Yogurt
- Ice Cream
- Dairy Dessert
- Specialty White Dairy Drink
- Cream

Now in its 13th year, Dairy Australia’s annual Australian Grand Dairy Awards recognise the ‘best of the best’ in Australian dairy, and celebrate the achievements of the highly-skilled and pioneering people who produce these award-winning products.

For more information visit www.dairyaustralia.com.au/2012AGDA

Media enquiries:

03 9694 3718 I 0421 805 509 I sodell@dairyaustralia.com.au  

03 9694 3894 I 0417 540 059 I fgallagher@dairyaustralia.com.au