NEW ULM, Minn. — It’s official: Dairy farmer-owned Associated Milk Producers Inc. (AMPI) makes some of the world’s best dairy products.
An international panel of judges awarded gold medals to two AMPI entries in the 2012 World Championship Cheese Contest. The biennial competition, held in Madison, Wis., attracted more than 2,500 cheese and butter entries from around the globe.
A Cheddar made by cheese makers at AMPI’s Blair, Wis., plant scored a 99.5 to be named the world’s best in the Mild Cheddar competition. The highly competitive category included entries from countries such as Japan, New Zealand, South Africa and the United Kingdom, as well as the United States and Canada.
Scoring a near perfect 99.9, AMPI’s salted butter entry earned the cooperative an additional gold medal in the contest. The butter was produced at the cooperative’s plant in New Ulm, Minn.
“It’s gratifying to the dairy farmer-owners and employees of AMPI to know that the products we make are truly unrivaledanywhere in the world,” said AMPI President and CEO Ed Welch. “These international awards are proof of what we’ve known all along: the dairy products we make from quality milk produced on Midwest family farms are simply the best.”
AMPI’s champion Cheddar entry was made in one of the 18 new cheese-making vats cooperative members purchased last fall. The cooperative is the first manufacturer in the U.S. to install the innovative vats, featuring advances in technology that are redefining the benchmark for cheese-making quality.
Source: Associated Milk Producers Inc.