Frankfurt International Cheese & Dairy Products Trophy
An international tasting
The Frankfurt International Cheese & Dairy Products Trophy shine the spotlight on cheese and dairy products from across the world.
Every year since 2017, our organisation has invited producers of wine, beer and spirits to submit their products to a jury, which evaluates them at a tasting.
Since 2022, the Frankfurt International Cheese & Dairy ProductsTrophy is opening its doors to cheese and dairy products. Its 600 cheeses and dairy products for the last edition have made this competition a must for any industry producer.
Nearly 300 categories of cheese and dairy products are proposed for the tasting. Our jury is called upon to taste cheeses made from the milk of cows, goats, and sheep, as well as butters, yogurts, creams, and other dairy products.
The work of small-scale producers, organic products and innovations in the field of cheese and milk production have every chance of finding their place among the award-winners.
With this great diversity of categories, we hope to offer consumers a vast array of superior products to guide them in their cheese and dairy choices.
READ MOREA COMPETITION FOR ALL CHEESE AND DAIRY PRODUCTS
With more than 530 cheese and dairy products from 14 countries from around the world, the competition took its place amongst the great cheese and dairy product competitions organised in Europe.
The Frankfurt International Cheese & Dairy Products Trophy offers an international tasting of the highest level at an affordable price.
Frankfurt is not only an important economic and financial centre in Europe, but is also located in the middle of Germany. It is a natural choice that the best products in the world are launched every year in this city.
Who are the tasters?
We place a great deal of importance on quality and balance in our jury because this gives our competition credibility and instils a climate of confidence between producers and competition organisers. The jury is made up of internationally recognised professionals in the world of cheese and gourmet foods, media representatives and experienced cheese-lovers.
Most consumers are not experts. They are simply experienced cheese-lovers, like those on our jury who will enrich the tasting with their specific point of view. Each tasting team will include both experts in the field and carefully-chosen amateurs.
Our committee will first contact each person wishing to participate in the jury to make sure the candidate has the required knowledge and skills. If so, he or she will be approved for tasting, and registered as a member of the jury.
During the competition, the jury will blind-taste and evaluate products with the help of a 100-point marking scale, so that all the specific characteristics of a product can be taken into account in its overall score.
Each approved taster will receive an extract from the 100-point scale prior to the competition, so that he or she can become familiar with the system. Qualities observed include aspect and aroma (quality and intensity), texture, taste (quality and intensity) and harmony (overall evaluation).
You will undoubtedly find a very good reason to be there!
Our competition has an excellent reputation and is valued by producers and consumers from across the world.
With registration fees of 53.7 euros (before VAT) and prices starting at 15 euros per thousand units, it also provides very good value for money. All producers, no matter what their size, have an equal chance in this comparison of products from across the globe.
In addition, the competition is ISO 9001-certified, so both producers and consumers are assured of its seriousness.
After the tasting, all participants receive an organoleptic analysis of their sample and information on the average scores of the competition. This helps them evaluate their position with respect to competitors.
Enlightened amateurs and international experts taste and judge their products, so they are guaranteed of a selection that truly represents consumer tastes.
The competition uses its extensive network to communicate results directly to the main decision-makers: buyers, sommeliers, restaurant owners, importers, journalists for the specialised press.
Dynamic communication via social networks and over 3,500 journalists in mainstream printed media get the competition results out as many people as possible.
Present your production by participating in the international competition
Burkard
ENDEMANN
Publishing director at B&L Medien and member of "Guilde internationale des Fromagers"
Famous honorary Presidents
Each year the selection of an honorary president draws the attention of the press and puts the competition in the limelight.
Right from an early age, Burkhard Endema’s career has been shaped by dairy products. And understandably so as he grew up right next to his father’s dairy farm. After training as a dairy product expert, he studied food engineering in the dairy sector at Weihenstephan, where he immersed himself in all the intricacies of professional cheese making. He then took on management roles at an equipment supplier that offered and produced dairy production methods in Germany, Russia and Eastern Europe. Later on, at CMA (Centrale Marketinggesellschaft der deutschen Agrarwirtschaft) a marketing agency specialised in marketing agricultural products, he managed agricultural export marketing projects that boosted the reputation and sales of German dairy products around the globe. He then turned to the trade press, first at the magazine Lebensmittel Zeitung, and for the past 15 years has been editor-in-chief of the B&L Medien group, which publishes titles including Milch-Marketing and KÄSE-THEKE. Burkhard Endemann continues to maintain close ties with milk and cheese producers in Germany and abroad. He is a member of the International Cheese Guild and has also been a member of the jury for the Käsekaiser in Austria and the Salón Gourmet in Spain, among other responsibilities.
PresidentsResults 2026
For its 4th edition, the Frankfurt International Trophy has resumed its initial format. On 12 December 2025, event organiser Armonia Deutschland GmbH brought 138 tasters to Frankfurt. Cheese and Dairy products were evaluated by a jury composed of experts such as sommeliers and enlightened amateurs representing the tastes of future consumers.
A total of 610 cheese and dairy products were examined at the same time.In all, 181 cheese and dairy products were awarded a coveted medal. In accordance with the 1/3 rule, 78 samples received a Great Gold medal (92+ points), 76 samples a Gold Medal (85+ points) and 27 samples a Silver Medal (75+ points). RESULTS