A RED Leicester cheese made on the Ll?n Peninsula with milk from Welsh cows has been named the best of its kind in the world.

Wales’ oldest dairy farmers’ co-operative South Caernarfon Creameries scooped gold for its Red Leicester at the prestigious World Cheese Awards held in Norway.

The creamery, which employs 130 staff at its base in Chwilog, near Pwllheli, also won silver for its extra mature cheddar and bronze gongs for its medium cheddar and reduced fat cheddars, taking the total number of awards this year to 69.

Earlier this year the Red Leicester also won gold and silver prizes at the prestigious International Cheese and Dairy Awards in Nantwich.

There, SCC won 10 prizes, also including a gold for the Dragon brand half fat and silver for the reduced fat cheddars.

The Dragon brand reduced fat cheese was also hailed the best-in-show supreme cheese at this year’s Royal Welsh Show, and best Welsh cheese, making it the best cheese made in Wales.

It follows a major £13.5m investment in SCC’s new state-of-the-art cheese-processing and packing plant, allowing new cheeses to be produced using traditional techniques on a modern industrial scale suitable for UK retail and export markets.

In total this year, SCC has secured 15 golds, 22 silvers, 26 bronzes and six other prizes at awards where their products have been judged among the best from other producers, including the Great Taste Awards, Devon Show, British Cheese Awards, South West Cheese Awards and Global Cheese Awards.

A record-breaking 3,500 cheeses from every corner of the globe were entered in this year’s World Cheese Awards. They were judged by an international panel of 230 experts from 29 nations.

Alan Wyn Jones, managing director of South Caernarfon Creameries, said: “The World Cheese Awards is a truly global cheese event which has been bringing together cheesemakers, retailers, buyers, consumers and food commentators for over three decades.

“We are delighted to have secured a gold, silver and two bronze prizes for our cheeses, out of such a vast field of entries. This is great news not only for our staff, but for our 125 Welsh farming members whose milk goes to make the cheese.

“This has been a fantastic year for us. In total our cheeses have won a total 69 prizes, making it our best year yet for awards, a wonderful achievement of which we are all very proud.

“This is thanks in no small part to the expertise of our cheesemakers and the new technology we have installed thanks to our recent investments, all of which allows us to keep refining and developing the products to suit demand.”