By Anna Burdett

Last updated at 10:24, Saturday, 26 June 2010

Cheese made in Aspatria beat off tasty competition from across the UK to win the Royal Highland Show championship this week.

The Lake District Cheese Company’s extra mature Cheddar triumphed at one of the country’s main cheese shows.

Launched less than three years ago, the brand is sold in supermarkets across the UK and is the fifth best selling cheese in the country.

It is made exclusively at First Milk’s Aspatria creamery with milk from hundreds of Cumbrian farms.

The company also scooped a gold award for its extra mature cheese, the best non-Scottish cheese exhibit title and silver for its mature cheddar at the Royal Highland Show near Edinburgh.

Last year, it won the best UK Cheddar title against 300 competitors at the International Cheese Awards – the largest cheese show in the world.

Richard Hollingdale from First Milk said: “Winning the champion cheese award at one of the country’s most high profile shows underlines our reputation as a producer of award-winning Cheddar.

“Our talented cheese makers are creating superb quality Cheddar with milk produced by our own local farmers, right on the doorstep of our creamery.”

First Milk is the largest dairy farmer co-operative in the UK.

The business handles approximately 1.6 billion litres of milk per year from 2,500 producers.

On the back of the brand’s success, new investments have recently been made at the Aspatria factory which produces cheese 24 hours a day.

First Milk bought the creamery from Dairy Crest in 2006 and quickly shifted the emphasis of production from cheap own-label supermarket brands to the premium Lake District cheese.

First Milk is hoping to eventually export Lake District cheese to European markets and beyond.

First published at 08:57, Saturday, 26 June 2010
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk