World Championship Cheese Contest Announcement

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Kyle Wege

media release: The World Championship Cheese Contest will unveil the 20 best cheeses from across the globe, as well as the 2026 World Champion and two runners-up, in a live, media-only ceremony on Thursday, March 5 at 2:00 p.m. (CT). The ceremony will be livestreamed for public viewing at WorldChampionCheese.org and Facebook.com/WorldChampionshipCheeseContest. 

Hosted by Wisconsin Cheese Makers Association (WCMA) since 1957, the biennial World Championship Cheese Contest is the world’s largest technical dairy product competition. This year, dairy manufacturers from 25 countries and 34 U.S. states and territories submitted 3,375 entries of cheese, butter, cultured products, and dry dairy ingredients for evaluation. This week, a team of 56 expert judges spanning five continents assessed each entry based on rigorous technical standards in the search for the next World Champion Cheese.