A cheese made from Welsh milk on the Llyn Peninsula has been named the best of its type in the world.
Farm co-op South Caernarfon Creameries (SCC) scooped Gold for its Red Leicester at the 2018 World Cheese Awards in Norway.
The creamery, which employs 130 staff at Chwilog, near Pwllheli, also won Silver for its Extra Mature Cheddar and Bronze for its Medium and Reduced Fat Cheddars.
It brought SCC’s total medal haul for the year to 69, including 15 Golds.
Some 3,500 cheeses were entered in this year’s World Cheese Awards and Alan Wyn Jones, SCC’s managing director, said the creamery was delighted to be singled out in such a vast field.
“This has been a fantastic year for us, our best year yet for awards,” he said.
“This is thanks in no small part to the expertise of our cheesemakers and the new technology we have installed, all of which allows us to keep refining the products to suit demand.”
SCC’s Red Leicester is available to wholesale customers in 20kg blocks and is also sold as a supermarket own-label product.
It also won gold and silver prizes at this year’s International Cheese and Dairy Awards, Nantwich.
This year's awards have vindicated recent development work at SCC, Wales’ oldest dairy co-operative with 125 farmer members.
Earlier this year its Dragon range of cheeses were re-branded to market the company’s 80th anniversary.
This followed a £13.5m investment in a new cheese processing and packing plant.
Mr Jones added: “The investment resulted in a 25% increase in production and our sales last financial year reached a record high of £45.1m.
“This meant our farming members were paid one of the best milk prices in Wales for the second year running.”
Running SCC’s Red Leicester close for its most critically-received cheese was the co-op’s Dragon Reduced Fat cheese, Supreme Cheese at this year’s Royal Welsh Show.
