Entry forms for the World Dairy Expo Championship Dairy Product Contest have been sent out to dairy plants in the United States and Canada. This 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 based on the wide variety of dairy products, which are eligible for judging.

This year’s contest promises to be even bigger and better since it will be expanding to include a wider variety of dairy products such as cheese, yogurt, ice cream, sour cream, sour cream based-dips, whipping cream, sherbet, buttermilk, non-fat dried milk, butter, cottage cheese, whey, fluid milk and an innovative category. This wide 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 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 for the “best of the best”! 

As an added bonus, this year’s contest will have two grand champions - one of cheese and butter (sponsored by Cheese Market News) and another for Grade A products and ice cream (sponsored by Dairy Foods magazine).

A company may submit as many entries as they wish. All entry forms must be mailed to the Wisconsin Dairy Products Assn. by August 7. Once a company has submitted their entry forms and fees, they must ship their contest entries during the week of August 17-20. 

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, Wis., while ice cream, sherbet, dried whey products and creative/innovative technology entries will be shipped to UW-Madison Babcock Hall, once again affording dairy students the opportunity to be a part of this unique experience.

Judging will take place on the following dates:

August 25 – ice cream, sherbet, whey products and creative/innovative technologies
August 26 -- cheese and butter
August 27 -- yogurt, cottage cheese, sour cream, fluid milk, buttermilk, sour cream-based dips and whipping cream
 
Judging on August 26-27 will be held at the Madison Area Technical College’s Culinary Arts School, which 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.

After judging is concluded, all winners will be notified. The winning entries will then be auctioned off on Tuesday, September 29 at World Dairy Expo in Madison, Wis. 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.