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08/02/07 - STILTON STRENGTHENS ITS POSITION AS THE KING OF CHEESE

News release

Record amounts of Blue Stilton cheese were sold in 2006 following a bumper Christmas, the Stilton Cheese Makers’ Association (SCMA) announced today.

Domestic sales were five percent higher than in 2005 and accounted for 55 percent of all blue cheese sales in the UK. Exports also performed strongly, growing by more than ten percent with sales to the USA growing by even more despite the weak US Dollar.

The success has been attributed in part to a PR campaign encouraging consumers to use Stilton in every day cooking rather than purely on a cheeseboard. The ‘Stick on the Stilton’ initiative included easy to make recipes, beer mats, sampling and attention grabbing tactics such as the launch of ‘Eau de Stilton’ perfume.

In a move to provide greater consistency in the labelling of Stilton cheese and to re-assure consumers about its authenticity and origin, the SCMA also announced that from January 2008 all retail packs will have to show the SCMA logo and a reference to the name Stilton being a registered Certification Trade Mark.

Commenting on these two issues, the Association said: “The changes in labelling will assure consumers of the authenticity of their cheese and bring in a degree of conformity in the way that retailers label White Stilton and Blue Stilton cheese – both of which are protected food names and carry Certification Trade Marks, the only cheeses made in the UK to be so protected. The changes require the seven dairies who are licensed to make Stilton to ensure that Stilton is labelled in a more consistent manner.

“We hope to see Stilton sales continue to grow throughout 2007 and 2008 and look forward to consumers seeing the distinctive SCMA logo on all packaging.”

Further changes are afoot from May 2009 when new EU regulations come into force concerning the labelling of all protected food names – including Stilton – when it will be necessary to include the appropriate EU logo and/or a statement that the product is a protected name.