INTERNATIONAL – A French Camembert-style goats cheese took the Supreme Champion Cheese title at this year’s World Cheese Awards, held at London’s Olympia last week.

The cheese, which is produced by Eurial-Poitouaine, beat over 1,000 other cheeses from around the world. This year was the first in which the awards have run a French goat’s cheese class, due to increasing variety and demand.

Commenting on the announcement, organiser Bob Farrand said: “This really demonstrates how well the goat’s cheese sector is growing not just in varieties available. But in quality as well.” The 16th World Cheese Awards were the biggest ever, with 70 different classes and with cheeses from UK, the USA, South Africa, the Canary Islands, France, Germany, Italy, Croatia, Greece and Cyprus.

In the awards’ judging, each cheese is scored on a points system. Enough points score gold, silver or bronze awards. The highest scoring cheese from each class then goes through to the Supreme Class to find the Supreme Champion Cheese.