More silverware for Golden Hooves, as entire range wins medals at British & Irish Cheese Awards

Photo credit: Neil White

Golden Hooves has won five medals at the British & Irish Cheese Awards this year, marking the brand’s second anniversary with a clean sweep of accolades for its regeneratively farmed cheeses.

Following a rigorous days’ judging at the UK and Ireland’s leading cheese and dairy competition, the panel delivered a big thumbs up to Golden Hooves’ whole range, which is made using milk from farms that are pioneering extensive research-led regenerative programmes. Lining up alongside the country’s finest cheesemakers, Golden Hooves won Silver awards for its Mature Cheddar, Vintage Cheddar, Smoked Cheddar and Red Leicester, while Double Gloucester also earned a Bronze award.

As part of farmer-owned dairy co-operative, First Milk, Golden Hooves is consistently earning plaudits for taste and quality to sit alongside its environmental and social credentials, including the brand’s recent successes with the Big Food Redesign Challenge. Following its work with the Big Food Redesign Challenge, which was created to redesign food to allow nature to thrive, Golden Hooves now has products on sale in selected Waitrose stores. Other stockists including Fortnum & Mason, Abel & Cole, and many independent retailers across the UK.

On a mission to get regenerative food and farming into every home, Golden Hooves recently launched an Augmented Reality (AR) and 3D farm experience. Via QR codes found on its award-winning range of cheese and crackers, Golden Hooves invites food lovers to explore trees and hedgerows that are buzzing with biodiversity, meet cows who are naturally fertilising the soil with every cow pat, and take a trip underground to see worms tunnelling to help the soil structure, as well as microbes, fungi and dung beetles hard at work, making sure all that cow poo gets put to good use.

Leona McDonald, director of Golden Hooves, commented:

“This time last year, Golden Hooves only had a Mature and Vintage Cheddar in our range, but a year on we have five cheeses all now with prestigious medals to their names! We’re here to prove that exceptional taste and quality can go hand-in-hand with regenerative, ethical and sustainable goals, and our consistent triumphs at cheese competitions goes to show what can be achieved. We wouldn't have been able to achieve this without the regeneratively farmed milk that our co-op of farmers produce and these awards really do help champion the incredible work that they're doing.”

Golden Hooves products are available to purchase from Waitrose, Fortnum & Mason, Abel & Cole, and independent retailers across the UK, as well as online at thecheesemarket.co.uk.