Parmalat SA dominated the annual SA Dairy Championship Awards last week, walking away as the single collector of the greatest amount of awards. Winning entries in the Dairy Championships serve as a benchmark for dairy quality in South Africa.
In the awards category of Dairy Champions Parmalat collected 17 first prizes while taking five prestigious Qualité awards. Charl du Plessis, manager research and development and quality, said that he was delighted with Parmalat’s performance in the Qualité and SA Dairy Championship Awards. A total of 683 dairy products by a record of 70 manufacturers were entered this year and six new manufacturers took part in the competition.
Parmalat took the prestigious Qualité Awards for the following categories:
Low Fat Smooth Cottage Cheese without added foodstuffs
Semi-Hard Cheese (Parmalat Chesso)
Mature Cheddar 6 to 9 months
Mature Gouda (Parmalat/Simonsberg)
Vanilla Dairy Ice Cream (Aylesbury Vanilla)
The Dairy Championships first class winners were:
Baby Gouda
Matured Gouda
Mild Cheddar
Matured Cheddar
Extra Matured Cheddar
Vintage Cheddar
Feta with added foodstuffs
Blue or white veined cheese
Semi-Hard Cheese
Full Fat Cheese Spread
Full Fat Processed Cheese
Fat Free Smooth Cottage Cheese
Low Fat Smooth Cottage Cheese
Low Fat Yoghurt with any food additive except fruit and flavourants
Vanilla Dairy Ice Cream
Dairy Ice Cream with added foodstuffs
Salted Butter
The cheese category attracted the most entries with 429 cheeses entered, followed by the yoghurt category (148). Entries were evaluated according to appearance, colour, texture and flavour.
In the category Feta with added food stuffs Parmalat took all the honours – first, second and third prizes. Overall Parmalat took 11 second prizes in the SA Dairy Championships.
Simonsberg Cheesemaker, Mario Jumat, was also one of four recipients of a French Cheesemaking Fellowship which enables him to improve his knowledge and skills in Burgundy in France on an intensive three-week course. He will be departing to France in June.
