Awards
The US International Cheese Competition medals will be awarded on a merit basis by a majority vote. The judges will know the category and the price per pound of the products they are tasting. The judges are instructed to grant no awards or medals when, in their opinion, the cheeses are not ones they would import, distribute, buy or sell in their businesses based on product and price category. Judges are asked to evaluate the cheese in silence until all panel members have finished their evaluation and then open a discussion to reach a consensus. Judge votes are recorded by a USICC staff moderator. If there is a significant difference among the judges’ votes, panelists are encouraged to reach a consensus and, if needed, seek counsel from the Head Judge Adam Levy.
Award levels are Double Gold, Gold, Silver, and Bronze.
Judging Panel Information
The judging will be conducted by panels of a minimum of three qualified trade buyers. Our trade-only judging panelists work with cheese and their customers on a daily basis. They are a mix of restaurateurs, cheesemongers, retail cheese buyers, distributors and importers. We try to assemble each judging panel with a mix of different disciplines so multiple viewpoints will be considered in the evaluation of the cheeses.
The judging will take place onsite at Haram-Christensen.
In case due to Covid restrictions we will then plan to do personal deliveries of the samples to the judges homes or businesses to ensure the quality of the process.
Additional Information
The cheeses will be presented by our staff of cheesemongers.
The tasting order of entries is set in our database first by panel, then category. Large categories are randomly split by the database so that no panel is asked to taste more than 60 cheeses in the same category.
Cheeses are presented to judges on coded plates. No containers are visible to judges at any time until the competition is finished. Staff members are strictly forbidden from discussing any brand names, whether entered or not in the competition.
The decision of the judges is final and no changes are made to awards after the judging is complete.
The trade buyers will also be encouraged to taste submissions from other panels after their panel has finished judging.
We encourage camaraderie and sharing of information between the different judging panels.