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Did you know?

Kerrygold Cheddar, a cheese from the island with endless pastures.

In the pastures of Ireland's extraordinary lush green landscape, the cows graze for 300 days a year. Silhouetted against the spectacular sky,they have become a symbol of the Emerald Isle.

Ireland's special combination of rainfall and hours of sunshine is the reason why the milk from these cows fed on juicy grass provides KERRYGOLD products with such unique sweetness and creaminess and a significant concentration of beta-Carotenes.
The high quality of this raw material is what has led a KERRYGOLD, a cooperative established in 1961 to promote and develop the dairy sector in Ireland, to excel in international markets with products such as butter and Cheddar cheese.

A unique process provides the
Cheddar with its
unmistakable
texture and flavour.
Milk of extraordinary quality provides
it with its legendary creaminess.

To cheddarise: a verb named after a cheese

Cheddar gives its name to a term used in the cheese-making process: cheddarisation.
The word, devised for the Cheddar-making process and later extended to include other varieties of cheese, refers to the process of cutting the curd into blocks, stacking them on top of each other and changing their position repeatedly so that the weight and high temperatures cause the blocks to release their whey and acidify.

This provides the Cheddar with its distinctive firm and elastic texture. KERRYGOLD Cheddar's diversity of flavour nuances is a result of ageing the cheese for different periods of time, ranging from 3 to 18 months.

Not only does the flavour vary with ageing but also the lactose content. The youngest cheeses (mild) are ideal for a low-lactose diet and more mature varieties, whose natural ageing process results in only trace levels of lactose being present, such as Vintage Cheddar (18 months), are suitable for lactose-intolerant consumers.

In very few decades, KERRYGOLD has managed to elevate Irish dairy products to a place among the best on the market and boost family farming in the country.

The sum of two great traditions

In KERRYGOLD Cheddar, two great traditions come together: the age-old cheesemaking practice of Irish farmers and the long history of an English cheese that dates back to at least the 12th century.

Originating from the English county of Somerset, it was named after the village of Cheddar, in whose caves the cheese was stored. It came to Ireland with the English settlers who for years centralised the production of cheese on the island.

But a country with such high production and excellent quality of milk could not be left out of the world cheese market for long and from the early 20th century interest in developing varieties of cheese spread among Irish producers
And that is where the KERRYGOLD cooperative came in, supporting the production of more than 82% of Irish dairy farmers. 14,000 small family farms, each with unique methods passed down from generation to generation, vie to provide KERRYGOLD with the best milk, and the cooperative organises an annual contest to reward the family that achieves it.

The KERRYGOLD cooperative chose for its name a native cow breed, the Kerry, which today is protected by Ireland's Department of Agriculture