Press Release
There is still time for dairy companies to enter the World Dairy Expo Championship Dairy Product Contest, if they act fast.  
The contest, sponsored by the Wisconsin Dairy Products Assn., is the only dairy product contest of its kind in the United States.  This contest’s uniqueness is due to the fact that a wide variety of dairy products are eligible for judging, and companies, not individuals, will be submitting contest entries.
This year’s contest promises to be even bigger and better since it will be expanding to include a wider variety of dairy products:  cheese, yogurt, ice cream, sour cream, sour cream based-dips, whipping cream, sherbet, buttermilk, butter, cottage cheese, whey, fluid milk and an innovative category.  This total inclusion of dairy products makes the World Dairy Expo Championship Dairy Product Contest completely unique.  With a comprehensive format, this contest will be the only national judging contest of its kind in North America and will offer companies an unprecedented opportunity to have their products compete with similar products from across North America in vying for the “best of the best”!  As an added bonus, this year’s contest will have 2 GRAND CHAMPIONS-a Grand Champion of cheese and butter (sponsored by Cheese Market News) and a Grand Champion for Grade A products and ice cream (sponsored by Dairy Foods).U.S. and Canadian dairy plants received entry forms the week of June 23.  A company may submit as many entries as they wish.  All entry forms must be mailed to the Wisconsin Dairy Products Assn. by August 8, 2008.  Once a company has submitted their entry forms and fees, they must ship their contest entries during the week of August 18-21, 2008.
All cheese, butter, yogurt, sour cream, cottage cheese, sour cream based-dips, buttermilk, whipping cream and fluid milk entries will be shipped to the High Track Warehouse in McFarland, WI-while ice cream, sherbet, dried whey products and creative/innovative technology entries will be shipped to UW-Madison Babcock Hall.Judging will take place on the following dates:
August 26 – ice cream, sherbet, whey products and creative/innovative technologies August 27-cheese and butter
August 28-Yogurt, cottage cheese, sour cream, fluid milk, buttermilk, sour cream-based dips and whipping cream
Judging on August 27-28 will be held at the Madison Area Technical College’s Culinary Arts School.  This judging site will allow the many students and chef-trainees at the culinary arts school the unique opportunity to closely observe and interact with the contest judges throughout the day.  And similar to past years, Wisconsin Dairy Products Assn will be donating the non-winning entries to the school for classroom training and education.  Judging on August 26 will be at UW-Madison’s Babcock Hall, once again affording dairy students the opportunity to be a part of this unique experience.
After judging is concluded, all winners will be notified.  The winning entries will then be auctioned off on Tuesday, September 30 at World Dairy Expo in Madison, WI.  A portion of the auction proceeds will be used to fund the Dr. Robert Bradley Scholarship, which will be awarded to a student pursuing a career in the dairy industry.  
If a company did not receive an entry form, or would like more information, please contact Wisconsin Dairy Products Assn. at 608.836.3336 or via email at info@wdpa.net.  Complete contest information can be found on the Internet at www.wdpa.net.